Secret Love
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: It was a surprise. They hadn't noticed a thing after Harry had broken up with Ginny at Dumbledore's funeral. They didn't expect their announcement at all. But then again, they had been quite blind before that time as well. Well, Harry and Ginny didn't let it bother them too much and simply did things their way. Harry / Ginny
1. Secrets in War

**Merry Christmas everybody!**

 **This is this year's Christmas story for you. A nice, little three chapter story, with the pairing Harry / Ginny. Part during the books, part after the end of war before epilogue. And of course, it's AU. I hope you enjoy my Christmas present.**

 **As always, I own nothing about the Harry Potter universe, just this little idea. Happy reading.**

* * *

 **Secrets in War**

He knew he should break up with her. He had to search for the horcruxes very soon and it would be too dangerous for her to be known to still be his girlfriend. But he honestly didn't want to do it. Call him selfish, but he wanted, no, needed her. She had been the one to pull him through these past two years, when at first the school was turned against him by Ministry slander and then, when nobody believed him about Malfoy being a Death Eater and Hermione sniped at him about the Potions book. Nobody knew, but he had been with her for way longer than any of the others thought. Ever since she had dragged him out of his funk at Grimmauld Place. When she had told him that he had been stupid to not ask her if he was possessed by Voldemort.

He knew that he had kissed Cho before leaving Hogwarts, but it honestly hadn't done anything for him, but make him realise that she wasn't the right girl for him. He had been unsure about his feelings for his long-time crush, but that cleared his confusion up right away. And during the Christmas holidays, after she made him realise that he didn't need to keep his distance from the others, he had started to watch her more closely. And slowly, without really knowing how it happened, he had fallen for her. When they had celebrated the dawn of the New Year, she had surprised him by kissing him on the stroke of midnight. And that kiss had caused butterflies in his stomach. He suddenly knew that Ginny was much better for him than Cho.

He had asked about her boyfriend, but Ginny had told him that she and Michael had broken up at the end of November already, as they had both realised that it didn't work out. They were still friends, and as Michael loved to mock his friends over their lack of girlfriends, she had played along until now, as it gave her a good laugh, but they had talked on the train and had agreed to reveal the prank after the Christmas break. Ginny had agreed to not reveal that they were together, as neither Ron would be happy about it, nor would it be safe with all the ones targeting Harry. They had made a game out of sneaking around for some private time and the Room of Requirement had been very useful in that regard.

And nearly nobody went to the farther away places around the lake. Harry and Ginny had done so and spent many wonderful hours there. Ginny had listened to him, truly listened, and suggested things without expecting him to do exactly as she said, which Hermione tended to do. And she understood his wish to make his parents proud for doing well in school, but which was hard, as neither Ron nor Hermione took too well about outperforming them. She made him realise that holding back would only harm him in the end and he didn't need to openly show everything he could do. Ron rarely cared about report cards and he could blame many things on buckling down to get the required grades for the NEWT classes he needed to become an auror.

Harry also avoided any kind of awkward business with Cho, as he was far too busy with sneaking around to have secret dates with Ginny. He also, for the first time since entering the wizarding world, learned a lot of the things that wizard raised children learned while growing up. He was fascinated listening to a lot of Ginny's stories and some of the things she told him helped him understanding certain things in class better. For example, Mrs Weasley had taught all her children how to properly care for your equipment to make sure it lasted as long as possible and you got the best possible results with what you had.

This included potions tools, books, quills, wands and brooms. Harry had never been told that a wand needed polishing with a special wax once every three months to keep the wood from drying out, which could lead to breaking, if too much stress was put on the wand. Ron never did that or even mentioned it. With Harry's luck he knew that it was important to do so. Next to that there were some very basic brewing tips that could make sure that your potions were better, as you avoided contamination of ingredients. Just keeping that in mind helped to frustrate Snape in class, as Harry's brewing results improved by a whole mark.

On Valentine's Day, he really wanted to know why Hermione insisted in meeting on that day, but Ginny understood that to avoid suspicion he had to go meet her over lunch, he had taken Ginny out for a picnic. He had decided that it would work best if they entered the Three Broomsticks separately, but took tables as close together as they could. This way, once Harry was done with Hermione's request, he would be able to leave, and Ginny could follow soon after. The interview had been a great idea, but it had exhausted him. He was incredibly glad that his girlfriend knew the perfect cure for his mood; snogging him senseless. And Dobby had put a great picnic basket together, which they emptied at one of their secret spots besides the lake. Dobby had set up house elf wards to protect their privacy and keep them warm.

What neither Ron nor Hermione knew, but which Ginny had suggested to Harry, was that he had gone to the Ministry after he had sat the OWLs at Hogwarts and had done a few more subjects with the home-schooled students. That option was always available for all students that didn't manage to sit all the OWLs they wanted to take during the two weeks that they were sat at Hogwarts. Or for those that Hogwarts didn't offer. Harry had sat Arithmancy, after a glimpse into Ginny's book about the subject he found it really easy, very similar to muggle maths in fact and he had been an ace at that subject in primary school, Muggle Studies, a real joke for muggle raised students, languages, he had learned enough French from Fleur after 'saving' Gabrielle from the Black Lake that he could hold a basic conversation and had self-studied Latin to better his casting, and lastly he took the exam for Duelling. With all the DA training, he had an easy time there.

The results for his classes had been sent on two separate pieces of parchment. He had only shown Hermione the official one for the classes he took at Hogwarts. She had been surprised about his O's in Transfiguration, Charms, COMC and Potions, the one in DADA was expected by her, but didn't comment, accepting Harry's explanation of really working hard to get into the NEWT classes for an auror. Herbology with an E rounded that part up. He had passed Astronomy with an A, understandable due to the interruption, History he managed to pass with an A as well, a real surprise, as he had had the vision there, and Divination was a P, which he couldn't care less about, as he hated the class.

His secret subjects ended with O's in Duelling, Arithmancy and Muggle Studies and an E in languages. He was very pleased with that. He had eight O's, two E's, two A's and one P. More than great in his opinion. He had always wondered how Percy had managed his twelve OWLs, but with the information that you could take more subjects at the Ministry, and two were right up Percy's line, those being Politics and Law, it was easy to see how he had got them. Harry could show the same number now.

He knew that, without Dumbledore alive to keep Voldemort in check, it would be too risky to go to the Ministry to sit his NEWTs. He could at least pass six subjects with an E right now and he had been tempted to just do that, as it would remove him from under anybody's control as soon as he turned seventeen.

But the rules stated that you had to be at least seventeen to sit them and, with his birthday being the thirty first of July, that wasn't possible. The tests were at the beginning of the summer break normally to send all results at the same time.

He and Ginny had still celebrated his OWL results in secret while he stayed at the Burrow the summer after his fifth year. Ginny had been wonderful in helping him deal with the death of Sirius, the guilt he still felt for Cedric's death and many other things. He in turn helped her with her guilty feelings for the Chamber of Secrets mess. She sometimes still had nightmares about it and thus they helped each other heal. He really couldn't let her go, but somehow they had been too careless after that last Quidditch match of the season and he had kissed Ginny in front of the whole common room. They had played it off as a new relationship, but it was hard at times to play being really innocent and new to their feelings. They were far from innocent and he had no doubt that if Mrs Weasley even suspected what he got up to with her only daughter, he would never be allowed to be alone in the same room with her.

He needed to talk to her alone. He needed to make a plan, which would work to protect her properly, but not take away his most precious person. The separation that he would have to go through would be hard enough. Not being allowed to, at least in secret, hold her close and kiss her, would be unbearable. He had a thought and the longer he thought about it, the better he liked it. He would make sure that she was safe and once he had finally dealt with Voldemort, they would be together. He loved her, he had finally admitted it to himself and he would be damned if he gave up the most wonderful thing to ever happen to him. He took out his invisibility cloak, he still always had it on his person, and went to get to Hogsmeade through the statue of the hump-backed witch.

* * *

Ginny looked into the mesmerizing eyes of her boyfriend. He had just told her his plan and she had to say, for one of his plans, it was incredibly good. He had thought of all kinds of possible problems and found passable counters. The main issue was that she was still subjected to the trace for more than a year. His trace would break in a little more than a month.

"You really want to do this?" She asked moved.

"More than anything, Ginny. I know that I can't openly be known to be your boyfriend until Voldemort is dead and I sadly have that stupid prophecy hanging over my head. He won't leave me alone. Right now, we still have the chance to brush what others watched off as a short fling. Nobody but us knows that it is anything but. I love you and I know that if I was free to do as I wanted, I would declare that to the whole world," Harry stated.

"I love you too, Harry. And I agree with your plan," She nodded.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me," Harry smiled.

"Then let's do it before my stupid brother starts looking for us again. Really, on the one hand he says he's okay with our relationship, on the other he still grouches about us kissing. And we really only do the innocent kind of kisses. Not the ones that take my breath away that always end in us losing our clothes and going at it like rabbits in heat," Ginny commented giggling.

"I wouldn't want him to know what we get up to. He's really close-minded in that regard. He needs to grow up a bit more to understand that sex is perfectly normal in a relationship," Harry commented, "He would rant all the time and that really gets on your nerves."

"True that. He's way too prude," Ginny nodded.

Harry pulled out a basic silver ring with some black runes on it, with a smaller red circle in the middle of two silver ones.

"I got this in Hogsmeade. It is enchanted to protect you from any kind of poisons and potions in your food and will produce a powerful shield charm, should you be attacked. The runes are powered each night by your magic. The longer the ring doesn't need to use its powers, the more powerful the protection will be and the longer it will last. I want you to take the ring as a promise as well. Once this war is over, I will replace the ring with a real one. One that shows the whole world that I intend to spend the rest of my life with you," Harry told her seriously and held up his own right hand, where he wore a matching ring on his middle finger, "This is also to show that I'm as committed to you, as you would be to me."

"I will accept it in the spirit it is given, Harry, thank you. I will sleep easier knowing that nobody can sneak up on me next year at school," Ginny said, "And I will hold you to that promise. So, don't you dare do anything stupid and die on me!"

"I have every reason to stay alive, Ginny," Harry replied tenderly.

"I really hope so. I don't want to lose you, Harry," She stated emotionally.

He closed the small distance, placed the ring on her finger and kissed her passionately. They both needed to feel the other. It had always been like this.

* * *

Harry really needed some time away from Ron and Hermione. Their silent talks behind his back were really grating on his nerves. Did they think he wouldn't notice? And their kind of support wasn't really all that useful. Hermione was totally convinced that only her ideas were right, and she dismissed all of his outright, if she thought that they were ridiculous. Hello, who had been shown the memories and had dealt with Riddle in person time and again? It was him, not her! But still, she couldn't imagine that your school could become your home. And Ron couldn't either. Well, both had loving families. They had support outside of the school. Neither Harry nor Riddle had had that, which made them feel like Hogwarts was their home. It would be even stronger for Riddle, who had found out that he was Slytherin's descendent.

He would feel it prudent to hide one of his horcruxes at the one place that meant everything to him. His visible proof to his grand heritage. A place where he had explored all the secrets he could. He had even found the Chamber of Secrets as the first one in a millennium. That took serious dedication to the place. She thought it might be at the orphanage. As if he would ever use a place, which he had hated. A place that made him a common orphan. A place where he didn't have any special powers he could boast with. A place that Dumbledore knew about and would have looked into first thing while he was gone last year. No, that one was a dead-end. He needed to think of places of great importance to Riddle. Places where he would feel special. Or which would prove his heritage. Places that he felt were absolutely safe against theft.

Then Harry hit his head.

"I'm an idiot!" He mumbled, "Kreacher!"

The old elf appeared in front of him.

"Hello Kreacher, I have some questions, which I hope you can answer," Harry greeted.

"Certainly, Master Harry. Kreacher will do his best to answer his master's questions."

"Firstly, are house elves capable of getting money from Gringotts for their masters if they present the vault key?" Harry wanted to know.

"House elves can't touch goblin gold keys. Enchantments on them burn elf skin. But master can give his elf a letter for goblins to get the elf gold from the vault. Or master can give general access to vault to the elf, which is what the Blacks did in the past. An elf can't betray his master's secrets and can only go to the vault if master orders it," Kreacher explained.

"Does that access generally cover all members born into a house, or only those with the surname?" Harry asked.

"All those born into the family," Kreacher answered, "But elves cannot take money from a vault without direct order of the head of the family. It doesn't work with other members."

"So, for example, if I, as heir to Sirius, who was the last head of the Blacks, thanks to being the last male with the name, ordered you, as the Black house elf, to get me money from the Black family vault, you could do it?" Harry asked, "Or from those that married into other families like Bellatrix Lestrange or Narcissa Malfoy?"

This was the important point. This would decide if his idea had any worth.

"Kreacher can do that," Kreacher nodded.

"Can you also take your master into those vaults without having to go through the bank proper?" Harry asked.

"His master's order is the house elf's highest law. If master ordered this, Kreacher could do it," Kreacher confirmed.

"Very good. Kreacher, I need to get into the vaults of all Death Eaters that are related to the Blacks. I need to find another item like the locket that Master Regulus wanted destroyed and I suspect it could be hidden there. Gringotts is the safest place to hide something you don't want to be found. Except maybe Hogwarts," Harry repeated Hagrid's words from before his first year.

"Kreacher will do so," Kreacher nodded and took Harry's hand, popping them away.

* * *

Harry was actually disgusted with many things that the Death Eaters kept in their vaults. He had searched the Malfoy vault, even if he didn't expect a second horcrux anywhere in possession of Lucius Malfoy, but it could have been taken here later on, if a previous hiding place had been too unsecure for Voldemort, for whatever reason. The vault held many useful things and masses of gold, which he took some of, thinking that, as Malfoy had got most of it with illegal means, it wouldn't be wrong to relieve him of some money. He was the enemy after all. Harry also had to hold in a cackle, as, if Lucius hadn't been stupid enough to transfer all the Malfoy money into the vault that had once been Narcissa's trust vault, simply because it was on the lower levels and therefore had much more protection, including a dragon as the guard, according to Kreacher, he wouldn't have had access to it. But it showed that the Blacks were far higher in the social ranking than the Malfoys and a lot of Lucius' influence came from his marriage with Narcissa. In fact, after Kreacher had shown him the size of the Black family vault, he had taken to transfer all the gold he could to the Black vault.

Only he had access to it, as head of the Black family, and he could simply leave the goblins a letter to ban anybody but him from accessing it. That would prevent theft by Death Eaters. He would see how things were after the war and how to use the gold. He didn't plan to let Lucius get off the hook again by bribing influential politicians. He would go to Azkaban. Especially as he hadn't been held responsible and punished for the stunt with the Chamber of Secrets. He had a personal grudge against the man for that. He was evil and deserved Azkaban.

Next up was Bellatrix's vault and he found Hufflepuff's cup there, which had him grinning. Kreacher disabled the protective charms on the items in the vault and then Harry repeated the procedure of transferring anything into the Black family vault. It was close to being full now and Harry asked if there also was a way to take him into the Potter family vault. He was very pleased to find out that it was, as Dorea Potter, Harry's grandmother, had been born a Black and had had full access to the vault after her marriage to Charlus Potter. While that didn't allow Black family members entry, it allowed a Black family elf to get in there on orders of the rightful head of the Potter family.

Thus, Harry continued to take away Voldemort's war chest. He robbed all the gold he could from those Death Eaters that hadn't secured their vaults against Black elves. And the Blacks were related to more families than Harry had known, even after being shown the family tapestry by Sirius during his fifth year. Not to mention that any Black always had a better level of security for their vault than other families. There was some truth to the arrogance about the importance of the Blacks that Walburga always showed. Even if she still was a nasty old hag in her portrait. The things that Harry left in the vaults were those that he didn't have any use for. The alarms would trigger if he removed anything from any vault he didn't have access to from Gringotts. But the internal transfer wouldn't cause the same reaction. Thus, he decided to store everything that he thought too dangerous in the old personal vault of Regulus Black, which didn't see any movements, as it was emptied by his parents after his death. It still remained as a possible future trust vault for children from the House of Black.

Now it was a deposit place to prevent that Voldemort could use it. Complete with a dragon in front of it to guard it and the other four vaults in this area of the tunnels. Regulus would surely have agreed to help out in this way. Harry took one thousand Galleons from the Potter vault and had Kreacher take them to the tellers to exchange them into British Pounds. That was a job a house elf could do for its master. No goblin would even ask what the money was needed for. They would be happy to get gold and give out worthless paper, which it was in their eyes. Which was why their exchange rates were more or less screwed up. They gave out five hundred Pounds for one Galleon, even if the buying power of a Galleon was about fifty pounds. They simply didn't want the paper.

In the past they had had to give one Galleon for fifty pounds when muggleborns had exchanged money, Ministry orders, but now they only had the paper that they had taken in the past and couldn't get rid of it properly. There wasn't anybody that wanted it anymore after all, as the Ministry, which had previously got some regularly for jobs in the muggle world, no matter which country, shunned anything muggle and would for the foreseeable future, if nothing drastic happened, which the goblins didn't consider very probable. Probably because of the way things had gone the first time Voldemort was powerful. Therefore, they rather handed it out for much less than they had paid for it, when somebody actually asked for it.

If somebody wanted the dratted paper, they would hand it out gladly. They didn't know that Harry had great plans for the five hundred thousand Pounds that he surprisingly got from Kreacher. This money would make the resistance much better prepared, especially as he had as good as bankrupted the dark side.

* * *

Ginny smiled reading the letter that Harry had Kreacher deliver to her. She was incredibly happy to hear from him. His mission was going better than it had for a while and they had managed to find and destroy two horcruxes. And yes, Ginny knew what Harry was doing, as he had told her everything about his lessons with Dumbledore. After Harry had had enough of Hermione and Ron talking and complaining behind his back, he had taken the book that Hermione had about horcruxes and read if from cover to cover. Until then she hadn't really let either male read it. Harry could only shake his head at that kind of thinking. She had kept too much information about the horcruxes and their history for herself, simply assuming that it wasn't relevant for the mission.

One mention in the book was that there was a theory that not many researchers actually believed in. It said that those that shared the same blood as the one that had created the horcrux, could undo the enchantment in his stead. Supposedly there had been a dark wizard in the sixteen hundreds that had made two horcruxes and his youngest son, who didn't share his father's beliefs, was aghast at what his father had become. He had stolen one of the horcruxes and cast the counter charm that would trigger the release and return of the soul piece to its owner.

Hermione had placed many notes into the book and had dismissed the idea as ridiculous, or, even if it might be true, useless, as nobody was related to Tom Riddle anymore, after he had killed his father and grandparents, and his maternal family was also made disappear or was already dead when he found out about them. Harry meanwhile had remembered that he, thanks to the ritual Voldemort had used to get back a body, shared his blood with Voldemort. Harry had studied the release charm, which was explained in the description of the creation of horcruxes as a way to remedy if you accidentally stuffed your soul into the wrong container, which one really stupid dark wizard had managed to do five times before finally getting it right, and had used it on the locket and the cup once he had it down properly.

As a side note, more a warning to those attempting the charm, it was very unadvisable to mess the placement up repeatedly, as that wizard lost his mind and was brought down easily by his enemies, once they found his horcrux. The charm worked on all horcruxes that were within a certain distance of the caster. It turned out to be a great thing, as Harry's scar turned out to be an unexpected horcrux. He released three soul pieces at once and fell unconscious for two days after it. Still, his magic was now much more powerful, and he felt much happier, as if a big burden had been lifted from his shoulders that he hadn't even noticed.

He wrote how he missed her and wished he could meet her in person. How she wished that it was possible. But she couldn't get out of Hogwarts and Harry couldn't sneak inside without triggering several alarms. And the Carrows kept a very strict eye on curfew and had the heads of houses report the absence of any student in the house. The only viable excuse was being stuck at the hospital wing, which Madam Pomfrey had to confirm with a report what was wrong with the student in question, and being forced into punishment by the Carrows. She shuddered. They had had to save so many that had been chained to the wall and hit with dark curses by those Slytherin upper years that supported the Carrows' regime of terror at the school.

She wished she could keep the letter, but she knew that she had to burn it. She had done that with all of Harry's letters, to destroy any kind of evidence that she was in contact with him or still together with him. Everybody had bought their ruse of breaking up at the funeral, Harry playing noble git and she resigned girl that had to let the hero go to do his job. The one time they slipped up in keeping things secret had been on Harry's birthday, where she couldn't resist kissing him in her bedroom. Which the git Ron had to interrupt. She really hoped that soon she could be back with Harry.

* * *

Harry smirked seeing the reaction of Ron and Hermione to his revelation of having found out how to destroy the horcruxes and having finally dealt with the locket that had caused them so many problems when they had to wear it. Not to mention that he had found another horcrux at Gringotts of all places with the help of Kreacher, who stood proudly when his master praised his help.

"How did you come up with the idea of Gringotts?" Ron asked.

"I had the thought that Riddle would look for places where he felt that theft was impossible. And Hagrid once told me that Gringotts was the safest place to keep your valuables, except maybe Hogwarts. It was when he took me school shopping before my first year, and he also collected the Philosopher's Stone at the same time. Which led me to the conclusion that little eleven-years-old Tom Riddle, when he first saw the Gringotts building, of course would see having a vault there as a symbol of being a true wizard. Add the security precautions and you have one very secure hiding place for anything you don't want others to find that would tempt Riddle to use it. I then simply started looking through any vault that belongs to Death Eaters that are related to the Blacks, as Kreacher was still allowed to get into those vaults, as he's a Black house elf," Harry explained.

"Why didn't you tell us? We could have planned the thing properly," Hermione asked.

"To only get my suggestion shot down again? No thank you, Hermione. I have had that happen too often by now. You treat me as if I don't have a brain sometimes or that I only think of ridiculous things. I thought that, even if you might not think that my ideas are reasonable, you had learned not to dismiss them last year after I was proven right that Malfoy had taken the dark mark," Harry pointed out.

"That was different!" She insisted.

"How so? I tried telling anybody I could that Malfoy behaved suspiciously and was up to something. That something turned out to be orders to kill Dumbledore. While Dumbledore suspected it, he didn't act either. And Malfoy's earlier attempts got Katie into St. Mungo's for months, having been very lucky to not touch that cursed necklace properly, which would have killed her, and Ron poisoned, which, if not for me acting quickly and remembering that note about bezoars in the book you always gave me grief about, would also have killed him. You and Ron also didn't want to believe it and especially you were very cold and distant about anything I did last year. And I really didn't do anything wrong that deserved it. Just because I decided to go with instructions in a book that differed from what you used, and I offered you to share the book, it isn't cheating.

"In the end it turned out to be Snape who wrote the additions. And while I hate the man, I will admit that he's brilliant at Potions. Had he simply published the book with his additions under his real name, you would have immediately been willing to believe anything in it, because he was a teacher and a person of authority. I still believe that there is one horcrux at Hogwarts and the simple reason is that it would have been an irresistible temptation to trick Dumbledore like that for Riddle. If he could hide a horcrux directly under Dumbledore's nose, it would be the perfect idea for him.

"And there are many places that Dumbledore knew nothing about and more than enough secret passages through which Riddle could have got into the castle without Dumbledore knowing. Or he could have used the day he went to apply for the DADA position. He was already there after all," Harry listed.

"But Dumbledore would have kept him watched then," Hermione insisted, rolling her eyes.

"And you really think that something as unimportant like that would have stopped Riddle? Face it, there are too many ways to drop from the radar. Alone an invisibility cloak or a really powerful disillusionment charm would prevent that anything from portraits to ghosts would be able to find him. Add some more stealth charms and you get a small window of opportunity," Harry countered.

"Let's say I admitted you could be right, where would he be able to leave a horcrux that Dumbledore didn't know about? Which places wouldn't he have found?" Hermione asked.

"I know of two he didn't know about that we found. The Chamber of Secrets, which would have been perfect, as only a parselmouth can open the entrance, or the Room of Requirement. Dumbledore never knew their locations or how to get into them," Harry answered, "And if I had to guess, I would bet on the Room of Requirement. There are endless possibilities of rooms to choose from. And it would be nearly impossible to find it in a room like the one Malfoy used to repair the vanishing cabinet and where I hid the Potions book. That one is filled up to the ceiling with lost and hidden things."

"I have to admit that it sounds like it could be possible," Ron replied, looking at Hermione, "Dumbledore's office is at the seventh floor as well. The way from there to the entrance of the Room of Requirement isn't too long or out of the way to not make it possible."

"Don't be stupid! Dumbledore would have kept an eye on every move Riddle made while he was at Hogwarts," Hermione protested.

"He wasn't all-knowing!" Harry declared, "He would be the first one to admit that, Hermione. He said so himself. He made mistakes. And he didn't know where the horcruxes were hidden. He would of course have noticed if Riddle had stayed much longer than expected, but who will look for the exact timing? It would only cost Riddle five to ten minutes to hide something in the Room of Requirement. And it could also have been that he went back during the night, having just used the visit to check the defences that were active."

Hermione just huffed, not willing to admit she could be wrong. Harry just shook his head and left the tent. He really didn't want to deal with that. He wouldn't cave in this time. She was his friend, but he really had enough of her attitude. How he wished he had Ginny with him. She would understand and be willing to see if his theory was correct. What would it hurt after all?

* * *

Harry was hidden under his invisibility cloak. While Ron was willing to accept the possibility of there being a good chance that Riddle had hidden a horcrux at Hogwarts, Hermione was stubbornly against that. Her belief in authority figures like Professor Dumbledore was more a hindrance than anything right now. And reminding her of the failures of authority figures like Fudge, Umbridge, Snape and the like only made her insist that Dumbledore was different. Therefore, Harry again set out on his own. A house elf was an incredible asset for the mission. Kreacher managed to get him into Hogwarts easily, without triggering any alarms.

The one thing Harry had left with his friends was a large bag with food from a supermarket, with the comment that he had also got more money from his vault so that they wouldn't have to deal with the supply problems anymore. Ron's mood certainly improved after that. He was much nicer again and he often calmed Hermione down when she tried to get her will. Being rid of the horcrux also definitely helped. Harry knew that if he proved her wrong again, it would help a lot. He really didn't understand why she had to always be right.

Harry had intercepted Luna, Neville and Ginny after their last classes of the day and slipped them a note, saying that he needed their help and wanted to meet them in the Room of Requirement. He waited next to the wall where the hidden entrance was and when Neville set up the room, he slipped in with them. Once the door vanished behind the group, he took off the invisibility cloak.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed delightedly and jumped into his arms.

"Just delay your full happy reunion until we got the official part out of the way," Neville spoke up, grinning, "I know you two lovebirds will want some private time."

"You knew?" Harry asked surprised.

"You would be surprised what one can find out if people tend to underestimate and ignore you. I've known that you and Ginny were a couple since the Easter break in our fifth year. I just decided that it was your decision when to tell people, therefore I kept silent. It was actually pretty entertaining to see how only I had a clue what was really going on between you and Ginny," Neville chuckled, "Especially when boys tried to get her to date them or when Ron threw a fit over the possibility."

"Thanks, mate," Harry replied gratefully, "We didn't want my enemies to target her."

"Very wise, the nargles could have told them if you weren't careful," Luna agreed.

All of them could speak enough Luna to understand what she meant.

"So, what did you want to discuss with us and where are Hermione and Ron?" Neville asked.

"Well, let's say that Hermione and I have strong differences in opinion and I left the two at our current location while I came here to investigate something very important. While I can't tell you everything, what with the Carrows controlling the school and the danger of the information getting back to their boss, I can give you a rough picture. Vol" Harry was interrupted by Ginny kissing him surprisingly.

"Ginny?" Harry asked once she stopped.

"Don't use the name. They have put a taboo onto it. Malfoy was bragging to Parkinson how this cunning move would bring in the enemies of Tom into custody very fast and that he hoped that you would be caught thanks to it and be killed," She told him upset.

"Damn it, thank you, Ginny. I didn't have a clue. I just started using Riddle to talk about him, because Ron always protests hearing the name out of fear," Harry said, "But with you not having that problem, I did what I always did."

"That's the reason why they did it, Harry," Neville stated, "Only the strongest and bravest would use his name. It's a secure way to find his opponents and take them out."

"I think I need to hear what kind of information you could collect on what the Death Eaters do and plan while I'm here. How long do you have until you're missed?" Harry asked.

"Tomorrow morning. They have stopped meals in the Great Hall except for the Slytherins after the first week, as Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were close to mutiny over their ways of doing things. And face it, the best time to strike would be when there was a large number of students in one place. Even the extreme Slytherins, the junior Death Eaters, wouldn't be able to support the Carrows if all three houses turned against them at once," Neville said, "Therefore, they have ordered the house elves to send meals up to the common rooms. That way they can keep control. And they can lord the fact that the good behaviour of the Slytherins got them better food. While they have the heads of houses report the absence of any student that isn't present at curfew, we have some ways around that to cover for one or two students at a time. As long as it isn't for more than one evening, there won't be any consequences."

"Makes sense. Well, then I can take a bit more time to explain things properly. I have a mission that Professor Dumbledore gave me. I need to find certain things that are important for Riddle to stay in power. It will be impossible to defeat him before those things are found and destroyed. Five of the items have already been destroyed, I know where one of the two others is, but the last one, I think, could be hidden here at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore theorised that Riddle, as descendent of Slytherin, wanted to have those things that secured his power to have a connection to the Hogwarts founders.

"One was a diary that proved his opening of the Chamber of Secrets when he was a student here, the next a ring that belonged to his maternal grandfather, from which side he had the Slytherin heritage. Then there was a locket of Slytherin, a cup from Hufflepuff and the last one I know what it is, is his snake, he calls it Nagini. The last item should be something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Harry explained.

"Ravenclaw is famous for her lost diadem," Luna said immediately, "Daddy is trying to replicate it and thinks he has a good lead on it."

"Do you think you could show me a picture of the diadem?" Harry asked and was surprised when a crown-like item appeared on a small cupboard with a bust that looked eerily familiar to him.

"Harry, that is the lost diadem!" Luna exclaimed excitedly and walked over, only for Harry to stop her.

"We don't know if Riddle did something to make it dangerous yet," Harry warned, "The locket could make you depressed and the diary could possess you if you were in contact for too long. I have no idea what this thing's protection might be."

"I guess you're right, but it is a true shame," Luna whined.

Harry nodded and then did a detection charm that had also been in the book that he had taken from Hermione. It came back positive.

"That's definitely one of the things I need to find. I can't believe that it was this easy," Harry commented happily, "Please stand back a little, I will cast the spell to get rid of Riddle's enchantment."

Harry waited until they had backed off and then cast the reversing spell. Like the locket and the cup, there was a small shriek, as if something was angry and surprised, then it was silent again. He knew that the soul had re-joined Riddle. He truly wondered if he had noticed anything.

"It's safe now," Harry stated.

"That was a bit anticlimactic. I would have expected more drama," Ginny commented.

"I like this much better than the way we had to use to get the locket back from Umbridge," Harry replied.

"I guess that's true. How long can you stay?" Ginny wanted to know.

"I told Ron and Hermione that I would be back tomorrow in the morning. I think they should be alright, as I left them a large bag with supplies like food and other necessary things. Ron is a real grouch without food," Harry told her.

"Isn't that the truth," Ginny laughed, then kissed Harry again.

Once they had separated, with Neville grinning at them and Luna smiling happily, Harry started telling them about the things that had happened on his end and they in turn described how Hogwarts was and how they were resisting the Carrows. Neville and Luna left before curfew while Harry and Ginny spent the night in the Room of Requirement. As the heads of houses only reported a student missing if they were informed about it by a prefect, and didn't check further if there wasn't any reason to, they could have this one night for themselves. And they certainly used it.

* * *

Hermione wanted to shout at Harry for being careless. She really wanted to. But then again, here was proof that he had been right and she had been wrong. Again. He had been to Hogwarts, which she really wanted to tell him off for, and had found the diadem of Ravenclaw, the last horcrux that they didn't know what it was exactly. She didn't like being proven wrong. It had been bad already last year, when it turned out that Malfoy was really a Death Eater. While Malfoy hadn't succeeded with his plans, his involvement and actions had directly led to the death of Dumbledore, because his actions had given the Death Eaters an entry into the castle, bypassing the wards completely. But this was infinitely worse. Had Harry listened to her, which she had nearly expected him to do, simply because he had done so in the past, they would never have found one of Riddle's horcruxes and he would have ruled their country forever, probably expanding his reign into other countries in the future.

Ron also looked uncomfortable. He had supported Hermione's point of view, as he didn't want her angry with him, but here he saw that Harry had been right all the time. He didn't like it, but he had less problems admitting that Harry had been right than Hermione had. He was used to others being smarter than him. He wasn't stupid, but all this putting clues together wasn't his forte.

"I hope that this is enough proof that you won't dismiss my suggestions in the future anymore. That's twice I was right and you were wrong. Now we only need Nagini and then we can deal with Riddle. By the way, there has been put a taboo on the name, therefore we won't use it anymore. Anybody using his chosen name is tracked immediately and any kind of protection around them is destroyed. That's how they found us in Tottenham Court Road after we left the wedding," Harry told them.

"Good to know. We would have been in real trouble," Hermione stated, still unwilling to apologise for her mistakes.

"Well, how do we find the snake?" Ron asked after a while of silence.

"It's going to be hard. It might be with Riddle, or he might have it spying around again, like he did when it bit your Dad, Ron," Harry answered.

Ron nodded, uneasily. He remembered the damage Nagini had caused and how it had been lucky that his Dad had got medical help fast enough. If they got bitten by her, he didn't know if they could counter her venom.

"Do you have any idea where she might be sent to spy?" Ron asked.

"One. If I was Riddle and had the goal to get my enemy out of the way, I would place somebody that wouldn't stand out and who was loyal to me without a doubt at the one place where I knew my enemy would appear sooner or later. The one place where he will think I will appear sooner or later is Godric's Hollow. He would know from Snape how I was never allowed to visit my parents' graves. And therefore, I think he might have placed Nagini into the village to be a lookout for the time I come and to possibly subdue me until he can come to kill me," Harry pointed out.

He had thought about this for a while. It was the one thing that made sense to him. Hermione was right with her warning that Riddle would expect him to come to Godric's Hollow, but he wouldn't waste manpower to keep an eye on the village. That was far too unreliable in his eyes. They could become bored and miss if Harry was there, should he have a disguise that was good enough. But Nagini, as a snake, could be very patient and wait for her prey. And with his soul piece inside of her, there was no worry about her not doing her job.

"Wouldn't people notice a snake that big?" Hermione asked.

"I doubt that he would have trouble finding a disguise for her. He could even let her impersonate a villager that didn't have many connections to others," Ron surprisingly said, "There are ways with dark magic to use the bodies of people that were killed to appear alive and hide a dark creature that isn't too big inside. The dark magic would control the body and let it appear normal until the creature revealed itself. Dad once told us that this was how our uncles Fabian and Gideon died in the end. They were holding their own against the Death Eaters that had ambushed them, but You-Know-Who had put snakes into bodies of Order members that he had recently caught and killed. They just thought that they were there to back them up and let them come too close. The snakes broke out of their shells when they were in the middle of the battle and bit them, poisoning them. That's how they died. They were fantastic duellers according to Dad. Mum doesn't like talking about them, it's too painful for her."

Hermione was shocked, as she hadn't known that possibility.

"Why did you never mention it before?" She asked.

"I didn't think about it until Harry mentioned that she could be disguised. I was honestly more worried about getting to her if she was around You-Know-Who," Ron replied.

Hermione had to admit that he had a point.

"We will have to have a good plan before we go to Godric's Hollow if we want to investigate if it could be true," She said.

"The best course of action would be an ambush. One or two of you need to be hidden while I openly approach the grave of my parents while being under polyjuice. You can hide under the invisibility cloak. If it really is Nagini who approaches me, you won't be able to understand her, as only I, as a parselmouth, would hear her hisses as English," Harry reasoned.

"But that's dangerous. Nagini could attack you immediately!" Hermione protested.

"Riddle has given orders to leave me to him. Therefore, I doubt that the snake would really kill me. And, thanks to having had basilisk venom and phoenix tears in my bloodstream, I have a higher resistance against snake and other animal-based venom than others. Madam Pomfrey told me that after the third task, when we were alone in the hospital wing. After all, I had been bitten by an acromantula," Harry replied.

Hermione didn't know what to say to that, therefore she stayed silent, still frowning.

"It's the best idea we currently have. We should go to Godric's Hollow and stake the place out like we did with the Ministry. That way we would know what to expect and could apparate away, should it really become dangerous," Ron suggested.

"That's a good idea, Ron," Harry agreed.

While he was honestly annoyed at Ron's attitude, at least he didn't directly dismiss everything Harry said, just agreeing with Hermione when she pointed out things in her logic. And he really didn't have a large number of supporters right now, therefore he was willing to keep the peace as much as possible. He could deal with everything else once they got rid of Riddle.

* * *

Harry looked down at the slain body of Nagini. He had been right. She had taken over the body of Bathilda Bagshot, a famous historian and acquaintance of his parents and Dumbledore. He had convinced both Ron and Hermione to let him visit the graves on his own visibly, having taken polyjuice potion to look like some random muggle, who he had summoned hairs from. He had gone shortly after dusk, trying to look unsuspicious. He had spent a good half an hour at the grave, taking his time to finally pay his respects to his parents. It was much harder than he had thought. Their sacrifice, so he could live, hit him all the harder, seeing their gravestone. They had been so young when they had died. Just twenty-one years old.

When he had left a lit, conjured candle and a small wreath of flowers, he walked back to the gate of the graveyard, knowing that Hermione and Ron were close, hiding from view with silencing charms on their feet to prevent being heard. He had been accosted by an old woman, who had told him to follow her, as she had to give him something. Harry played along, having noticed the soft hissing under the speaking, proving that this was Nagini in disguise. Once they had reached a darker alley, Ron and Hermione had struck and hit the body with cutting curses, which forced Nagini out of the skin of the dead woman. Harry had acted immediately and used the dark cutting curse that Snape had invented.

It was fitting that the traitor's trademark spell was now used to end the last horcrux. Hermione was busy vanishing the remains, now that the snake was dead, and Harry had performed the reverse spell again to make sure that the horcrux was really gone. It hadn't had any effect, as the killing of the snake had already destroyed it. The three friends apparated away, as they didn't want to stay for too long. It was possible after all that Riddle had felt the death of his familiar if he was connected with her through the horcrux.

* * *

The death of Nagini had surprisingly gone unnoticed by Riddle for a while, which Harry and his friends used to prepare for the inevitable final battle that would come. Harry trained all kinds of spells, now Hermione's large book collection came in handy, and they were soon at the level of graduates of Hogwarts in their casting. Ron mentioned that if classes at Hogwarts had had less theory and more practical parts, like they had done here, he would have been a lot better in his classes.

Hermione had tried to defend the theory parts, but Harry pointed out that Ron was right, and that the theory could have been kept shorter than it had been. They would all be better then. After all, while understanding how a spell worked was good, in the end it wouldn't matter if you couldn't use it. And few students were able to understand how to perform a spell from just reading the book. And Harry had always done better in practical parts than theory. He especially doubted the necessity of overly long essays. A short summary of a spell and its effects as well as what to keep in mind while using it would have been more than enough. They could have covered a lot more material that way.

Hermione wouldn't be convinced, but Harry simply kept to his opinion, letting her keep hers.

Harry also managed to get in contact with Kingsley. The man had also been on the run for a little while, after nearly getting caught after using Riddle's name. Thanks to being a full member of the Order, Kingsley had managed to coordinate with the other members to set up a site where they could take out the Death Eaters. After some long talks with Harry how to do things, they came up with a solution that everybody could get behind. As an auror, Kingsley had learned ways how to keep wizards imprisoned without a chance to escape, even without the help of dementors. There was a runic array that could be applied to a prisoner that would prevent him from accessing his magic.

He had been among those lobbying for a new prison using those arrays, so that they could get rid of the dementors, but Fudge had been too stubborn and it had come to bite them. The dementors were on Riddle's side. Thanks to the ideas and skills of Fred and George, they had a way to knock about twenty Death Eaters out at the same time. They had created stunner grenades, black balls the size of a football that could hover up to one and a half metres above the ground and lock onto the magical signature of the dark mark. Each ball was loaded with fifty stunning spells that it could fire onto a locked target's location before it had to be reloaded.

Harry was seriously impressed with that idea. Twenty was also a low estimate, but they had taken into consideration that there was the chance, if the Death Eaters reacted fast enough, that they would put up shields to block the first spell. The second stunner would normally hit, as the shield charms that the Death Eaters had shown to be capable of using so far only held for one spell before they had to be recast. And the ball would fire rapidly. The twins also told them that the grenades could be modified to work for non-marked targets, but it was more dangerous for anybody using them, as they then wouldn't ignore them and shoot at any magical person within reach.

The plan was to intentionally trigger the taboo in a prepared place where they put ten of the stunner grenades, of both kinds that were available, as many snatchers didn't have a dark mark. The knocked-out Death Eaters would be relieved of everything but their underwear and then portkeyed to an old World War II bunker that Kingsley knew. The bunker was being prepared against escape by Bill Weasley and there would be enough draught of living death to keep the Death Eaters out of the game for good until the light had won. The snatchers would be taken to another bunker, one less well hidden, as they simply needed the better-secured bunker for the really dangerous opponents. Snatchers were mostly thugs with little money that could be taken out of the game by simply keeping their wands. Most wouldn't have the money to buy a new wand.

Harry had also taken the Potions book back, after all it was hidden in the cupboard that the Room of Requirement had also brought to him when it brought the diadem of Ravenclaw into the representation that Neville had called up to let Harry talk to him, Luna and Ginny. The improved recipes for Potions were now put to good use by the Order members, who praised Harry for getting them this kind of advantage, which irked Hermione, as she still hated the book. But she didn't stand a chance against the arguments of the Order members.

The first ambushes were done simultaneously, as nobody wanted to give the enemy a head's up. And there normally were some lower ranked Death Eaters among the snatchers when the taboo was triggered. Which meant that by doing this, they would thin the ranks of Riddle until somebody noticed that anything was off. And as Kingsley had told them that the watch over the taboo was set up at the Ministry, it would be a long time until that happened. The people working there were too used to simply following orders they were given and not ask if it was right. A main reason why the take-over had been so easy. Kingsley planned to change things once they had dealt with the Death Eaters and Riddle.

* * *

Four weeks after starting their cleaning spree by abusing the taboo to their advantage, the Order of the Phoenix had caught and secured one hundred and seventy-nine Death Eaters and snatchers. It was an incredible result. They guessed that now the only ones remaining were the inner circle and some recruits.

"I wouldn't have thought that we could be able to get this many," Fred commented, looking at the space enlarged inside of the war bunker, where all captives were drugged with draught of living death and had the runic array placed on their bodies.

Their wands were kept in locked boxes in a safe house of the Order that had been placed under the fidelius charm. And for space needs, they had conjured bunk beds with only little space for each person. They could store up to ten people in one bed and they stood side by side. Magic was great in this regard.

"You would think that after two weeks they would at least change their modus operandi," George agreed.

"The less smart they are, the better for us. I mean, I recognise some of them from Hogwarts. There were Flint, Urquhart, Warrington and Higgs, who all played Quidditch against us among them," Harry stated, "And we knew that they weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. If not for their cheating and Malfoy buying them those brooms, they would have lost all games."

"True. I wonder what the other Death Eaters are doing now. They have to have noticed that many of their number disappeared. And, after the first five times, we only got Death Eaters with the mark, no unmarked snatchers," Bill commented.

"Probably they try finding a way to tell their boss that his dark army was gravely decimated without being killed for it," Harry guessed.

"Yes, he has a temper," Fred nodded mock sternly.

"When do you think they will react with full force against our ambushes or simply stop acting on the taboo being triggered?" Harry asked Kingsley.

"It should be soon. I think he might even try to use imperiused aurors to have more manpower, which would help us a lot, as we can break the imperius from them within two days' time and using that potion that the twins developed. It wouldn't put them in danger anymore if they were caught following a taboo triggering, as the others are all also missing. They will simply assume that they were also taken out," Kingsley pondered, "And I know that many hate having to hunt muggleborns instead of criminals."

"Then we will have the man power to challenge Riddle and the inner circle and end this before more innocents die," Harry nodded.

The group locked up the bunker again and left to plan more ambushes.

* * *

 **This was the first part and part two will follow tomorrow.**


	2. A Surprise

**Sorry for the delay of the chapter, I could't upload the file yesterday. So, here it is now. Enjoy.**

* * *

 **A Surprise**

Harry held Ginny tightly to him inside a cosy bedroom that he had asked the Room of Requirement for. The last battle had been fairly anticlimactic. They had managed to capture Bellatrix Lestrange in one of their ambushes and had interrogated her, as she, as an inner circle member, had much more knowledge about Riddle's plans than the grunts that they had captured beforehand. She was their key into Malfoy Manor, where their headquarters were located. Her personal portkey bypassed the wards around the building and they had arranged for an attack on the manor in the middle of the night.

They had first sent Dobby and Kreacher in to place stunner grenades in all rooms and then had activated them five minutes before taking the portkey inside. It had been a full success. Only one Death Eater had been left awake and Kingsley stunned him manually once they spotted him. And he was only awake because he had gone to the bathroom, one of the only rooms not trapped, as they didn't have enough grenades. They had concentrated on bedrooms, meeting rooms and the like and left the small bathrooms out.

Riddle hadn't been there, but about three quarters of the inner circle were. They had been taken to the bunker as well and secured against escape. After that they had gone to retake the Ministry, which was really easy. The twins would certainly make a fortune if they sold their stunner grenades to the auror offices of the world after the war was over. They were incredibly useful to safely secure large numbers of opponents. The Ministry was basically a repeat of Malfoy Manor. It was a bloodless operation.

Riddle was more challenging, but after herding him into a room where they had placed ten stunner grenades, even he couldn't defend himself against that number of stunners indefinitely. Especially as they had Bill set up anti-apparition wards over the place beforehand to prevent him from escaping. His shield charm held up a record of one minute before it broke and under the onslaught of stunning spells he fell unconscious. As he was much too dangerous to be left alive, like they had done with the Death Eaters, and nobody knew if the prophecy was true or not, Kingsley decided to be safe and let Harry use a banishing charm to send him through the veil in the death chamber. While it was hard for Harry to return there, after all, Sirius had died falling through the veil, he had persevered and he really wanted to finally be rid of Riddle.

The whole takeover of the Death Eaters had held for three months before the horcruxes had been undone by Harry or destroyed beforehand. After that, a few smart operations had taken care of the brunt of the dark army. Simply taking the fight to them had taken them by surprise and the light didn't even have to take their lives to succeed, a fact especially Harry was happy about. He hadn't wanted to kill all these people, even if they were evil. They could rot in prison for life, but he wouldn't sink to their level.

Right now, people were celebrating the second, and final, death of Voldemort and Kingsley had been named interim Minister of Magic. And as Harry had taken a large part of the fortune that had been in the dark side's hands, they wouldn't be able to bribe anybody. Not to mention that the takeover at the Ministry had been combined with a cleaning of bigots that had supported the regime of Voldemort. People like Umbridge would go to Azkaban as well. It was high time that something was done. And the ones that had suffered under what many had wanted to create for ages, a pureblood ruled society, were set on preventing that it happened ever again.

Harry and Ginny had sneaked away from the parties to have their own, private, celebration. Nobody had paid them any mind and they wanted to keep it like that for now. Ron and Hermione had finally managed to become a couple and Mrs Weasley was distracted enough by their new relationship, which she approved of, to not notice that her daughter wasn't anywhere near. She would simply assume that she was celebrating with some of her friends that had helped resist the Carrows and Snape at Hogwarts. All of them were arrested as well.

"Hey, what are you thinking?" Ginny asked Harry.

"That I have a promise to keep," Harry replied.

"Which one?" She asked, hoping it would be the one she was thinking about.

"The one I made you in June," Harry answered.

She smiled at him. He kissed her passionately and trailed kisses down her neck, which she liked a lot.

"Will you marry me, Ginny?" Harry asked, "I don't want to be separated from you ever again. I know we're young and still have to finish school, but I want to marry you."

"Yes, Harry, I will marry you," Ginny answered happier than ever in her life.

They sealed their engagement with a heated kiss that developed into a very passionate love making session.

* * *

To the amusement of Harry and Ginny, none of the Weasleys noticed their engagement for a while. They didn't really try to hide it, but they also didn't say it openly. Mrs Weasley was too busy with the announcement of Fleur that she was pregnant with her and Bill's first child, Mr Weasley had to work long hours in his new position as senior undersecretary to the Minister, Percy, while having made up with his family, lived elsewhere and was rarely around, the twins were busy dealing with all the requests for equipment that Kingsley had passed on in the name of the DMLE and Ron was distracted by Hermione.

Harry and Ginny had spent a lot of time, with the knowledge of Mrs Weasley, with remodelling Grimmauld Place to be more like a home for them. Well, she thought that Ginny was simply part of a group that helped Harry and that they were just friends. They were the only humans there, as there were two very eager house elves helping with the remodelling. Kreacher and Dobby, who had officially been employed by Harry now, and he couldn't be happier to work for his hero, worked wonders with their elf magic and within the month of a break that Headmistress McGonagall had given all students to return to their families to deal with the consequences of the war and for her to get proper teachers again, the dark and dreary house turned into a true jewel.

The two had decided to completely redo the layout of the house. They didn't like the really small bedrooms that they had used during the time that the house had been headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. And Harry didn't want the house to look anything like the building that Sirius had hated. They changed one floor at a time, bringing down walls and rebuilding new ones. Thanks to magic, they got everything done within the month over the longer Christmas break. Now there were lesser rooms on each floor, but they were much better in size and were much brighter. On the ground floor there was a large lounge with a fireplace taking up half of one side of it, with pictures of landscapes decorating the walls. All the walls had also got fresh wallpaper in the design of light brown stone work, which gave the room a very cosy look.

Harry had, after seeing the magical windows at the Ministry, decided to get some for Grimmauld Place as well. The windows gave the house much more light. A large blue carpet covered about half of the lounge's floor with a gleaming dark brown wooden floor looking out from under it. Harry and Ginny had gone into muggle furniture stores to get new furniture, after Harry had sent Kreacher to exchange another ten thousand Galleons into British Pounds before the revelation of the defeat of Riddle had been announced. He got the same deal and got five million pounds that way. A very good deal for him and about the maximum amount of Pounds that the goblins had left. He had had Kreacher investigate that part beforehand. He expected the exchange rates to normalise again soon, but who said he couldn't use the ignorance of the goblins about the true worth of the paper they wanted to get rid of so desperately?

He and Ginny had a lot of fun selecting the furniture for the house. From wardrobes to carpets to curtains and bed ware, they needed everything and made the shop manager very happy about the large sale. He even gave them a discount of five per cent on their total sale, as they spent many thousands of Pounds in the shop. Then Harry took Ginny clothes shopping, as they both needed new wardrobes. After Harry had explained to her that he had basically got the money as a present by the goblins and it really didn't hurt him to shop in the muggle world, Ginny was happy to let him pay for all her new clothes. And after being told how much money he had been given, ten times as much as he should have got, going by how much you could buy with the different currencies, she didn't have any problems spending the money for things that were needed.

Not to mention that, as his fiancée, she wanted her future husband to look as good as possible. Harry had replaced the fidelius charm on the house, as he didn't want to be found by anybody but those that he trusted. While they had got the Death Eaters and they were at Azkaban now, which was now dementor free and they still had the runic arrays on them, there were too many that wanted to use him for personal goals and he wouldn't allow that.

Next to the lounge, there were two guest bathrooms, a study for each of them, a large library and an arrival room for the floo. Down in the basement there were the much-more-modern-looking kitchen, in fact only the stove was a magical one, but it was still a new one, paid for with Malfoy money, as Harry told Ginny grinning, which she found hilarious, a storage room for food and drinks, a cold storage room, a laundry room and very nice bedrooms for Kreacher and Dobby, who had refused to have their rooms upstairs, as it wasn't proper for house elves to live at the same level as their masters. Still, as a compromise they had accepted to have small, nice bedrooms set up in the basement, close to the kitchen. Each room looked like a child's bedroom going by the size of the furniture. Each elf had been told to design the room to their liking, which especially Dobby took to with vigour.

Kreacher had been more hesitant, already thinking that this was way too much honour for a lowly house elf, but he had put up a few small decorations in the room and he liked this very much.

On the first floor there were four guest bedrooms, a large bathroom and a kind of common room, which Harry had wanted to have there for when they had guests that stayed overnight. Mostly for large birthday parties and the like. And later, when they had children, it could become a playroom. As flooing and apparating were a bad idea while totally drunk, having all this would be a good idea. And they didn't really want to have the party in any of the family rooms. The common room was large enough to let about thirty people party without a problem. The guest rooms could be set up for four people each, but normally only two were planned to sleep there at most.

The second floor was separated from the lower floors by a family ward, which Harry had to key people into to let them pass. From the second floor upwards, there were the family rooms. There were also four large bedrooms and a large bathroom on this floor, together with a music room, which Ginny had wanted, as she liked to play the piano, but never had the chance at the Burrow, as they didn't have one. She had gone over to her mother's aunt to practice on her piano when she was little and during the breaks from school. Harry had given into her pleas to also learn playing an instrument and had chosen the flute, as the handling wasn't too difficult. He hoped that it wouldn't take too long for him to learn and he honestly liked music. But, with the Dursleys as his guardians, he had never even thought about learning to play an instrument. They would never have allowed it.

The top floor, just below the attic, had another lounge, three more bedrooms, including the master bedroom, a large bathroom, Ginny insisted that you could never have too many bathrooms, as with a large family, which both wanted sometime in the future, it could become hectic with just one bathroom in the house in the mornings, and a smaller library meant for books that were reserved for the family. The larger library on the ground floor held books that they didn't mind to be read by anybody that came for a visit. It would also be safe books. Anything with a more dangerous content, which was still too important to be destroyed, would be kept in a safe behind a bookshelf that only Harry or Ginny would be able to open, or any adult children of theirs, once they had them. Hidden behind the façade of a cupboard door, was a magical lift. Both Harry and Ginny had decided that, once they were older, it wouldn't make sense to have trouble getting upstairs via the stairs. Not to mention that transporting several things at once was made easier with a lift, even if a locomotor charm also worked. Still, the capacity of one was limited.

Any supplies that the elves would need to keep the house clean and tidy were stored on the attic, together with the things left over by the Blacks that Harry didn't want to throw away. Which Kreacher was very grateful for. While he could fully identify himself with Harry as his master, he had always been a Black house elf and he didn't want to give his ties to his old family up. Harry didn't mind that at all. Kreacher was an old elf and he didn't know how much longer he had to live. He didn't know how old house elves could become. Thus, in Harry's opinion, letting him have this little, which didn't cost him anything, was no bother at all. And thanks to the portrait of Walburga Black going to the attic as well, they had peace of mind down in the remodelled house.

Harry and Ginny had enjoyed a lot of time in their new bedroom, and could testify that their bed was incredibly comfortable and didn't creak if they made love. Which would otherwise have been awkward later on. They didn't want to let their children know when they had sex after all. And they had trouble keeping their hands off the other. A runic array, which Ginny added, also ensured that they had their privacy. It was a neat creation, as it allowed them to hear what was going on outside of the door, if they set it that way, but no sound from the inside could get out. There were about five different combinations that Ginny included that she could think of immediately, which she thought might be needed sometime in the future, including the magical variant of a baby monitor that she connected to the possible future child bedrooms.

Three days before school would start again, Harry invited his closest friends and those Order members that he knew better to celebrate the new Grimmauld Place. To say they were very impressed was an understatement.

* * *

It was the end of the school year, which had been extended by a month, as there was a lot of material that needed to be covered for those that had missed the first term of school, mostly for being on the run and being denied the right to attend Hogwarts, as they didn't have blood status. Several Slytherin bullies had been expelled by McGonagall, as they thought that they could continue with the behaviour that the Carrows had allowed them to get away with. A severe miscalculation. After the fear that the Carrows had caused, and which several upper year Slytherins had supported, there was a no tolerance policy in place against bullying. Draco Malfoy had been arrested as a Death Eater and was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the war and the death of Dumbledore. The one reason it wasn't a life sentence was that he had been pressured into the service of Riddle and brainwashed by his father.

Still, he wouldn't get away unpunished. Most Death Eaters were put away for life. Some that had valuable abilities, like Snape, who had told them about Dumbledore's plan to get a lesser sentence, had been forced into working for the Ministry from a secured location. Snape had to brew for the Ministry and research new potions for just food and shelter and a small amount of money annually into his vault for the next twenty years, then he would be released. He would reside in the DOM and be under strict watch of the unspeakables. The money could help him deal with being on his own again after his release and would pay for about a year of necessary things for him.

The Quidditch matches that had been cancelled during the first term had been held in March and there simply were shorter intervals between the matches to get them all played during the season. It had been one point that lightened the mood in the castle, as the majority was still insecure after the way they had been oppressed the first term. Thankfully Harry being named headboy, next to getting his Quidditch captaincy back, helped a lot into showing that things would be different now. He didn't know though if the teachers would still be as happy with their decision, if they knew that their headboy abused his private room to spend the nights with his secret fiancée. Harry and Ginny didn't get back together openly, as Harry, supposedly, first needed to deal with things that had happened during the war. It was mostly his excuse to ward off his annoying fan girls.

Still, he had aced his NEWTs and was looking forward to the twelfth of August, the day after Ginny's seventeenth birthday. They had planned, in secret of course, to marry the day after Ginny came of age. They would only tell the Weasleys the evening of Ginny's birthday. They wanted to have them there, but they wouldn't take Molly Weasley's insanity in planning a wedding. Once had been more than enough for them. The only ones in the know by now were Neville, Luna, Bill and Fleur, simply as Fleur had spotted Ginny's engagement ring, the one Harry had promised to replace her protection ring with back in June of last year, on her finger and had drawn the right conclusions from her observations. Most others hadn't really looked closer, simply assuming that it still was the protection ring, which Ginny had told many about.

Fleur and Bill could really understand that neither Harry nor Ginny wanted to go through that hassle. And that Harry didn't want to have it publicly known that he would marry. Better let them face a done deal. It would still be causing waves, but they honestly couldn't care less. They had a house that nobody but their closest friends and family was told about and where they had two floors that nobody but them could access freely.

Ginny and Harry had the party for the wedding planned already and it wouldn't be at their home. It would be at an old castle, a way smaller one than Hogwarts, which belonged to the McGonagall clan, but wasn't used anymore. Professor McGonagall had offered them to rent it for large parties, even if she didn't know what kind of party they had planned. She honestly thought it would be one to celebrate the passing of the NEWTs for the leaving seventh years. And it wouldn't matter to anybody what kind of party was held there. Harry and Ginny could make sure that everybody was free at the date and kept it blocked for anything else by simply saying that a party would be held there at that date.

* * *

Kingsley listened to the request that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley presented him with. He could honestly say that he was honoured.

"I will gladly be the one to marry you. But do you really want to keep it a secret from your family, Ginny?" He asked.

"Yes, Kingsley. You haven't gone through Mum's craziness when Bill and Fleur married. I don't want that for my wedding. We will tell them the evening before to limit the freaking out about details that I honestly couldn't care less about. I already have talked about the way we want the decorations and things to be with Harry and we have arranged for everything to be ready for the twelfth. Everybody knows that Harry has rented the castle for the day from Professor McGonagall, just not the reason for the party. But everybody has already told us that they would come. We also wrote that nicer clothes should be worn into the invitations. I think the twins will love the way we do it. They will think it the best prank ever."

"Some might be cross about not being able to get you proper wedding presents," Kingsley pointed out, "While I can understand your reasons, you should keep in mind that this is an important event."

"I just want to marry Ginny. She had thought about eloping to avoid the craziness of her mother, but we also want them all to be there. Therefore, we decided on this as a compromise. This way Mrs Weasley only has one night to be upset and I think she will rather make sure to have her robes and everything ready in the morning than rage about missing out on helping with the planning. And I'll make sure that the invitations for everybody will switch to a wedding invitation two days beforehand, which means that they can prepare last minute that way. Of course, with a fidelius charm on the knowledge that it is our wedding," Harry explained.

"Okay, that would take a bit of the blow away. At which time should I be there?" Kingsley asked.

"We want to hold the ceremony at eleven, so that the party can start with lunch," Ginny answered.

Kingsley nodded and the two young magicals left to continue their preparations. They had planned a weekend in Paris, supposedly on invitation from Fleur, who wanted to visit her family before the baby would be born in the middle of September. There they would buy all the clothes they would need for the wedding without anybody suspecting that there was something going on that involved Harry Potter. After all, even the Weasleys only knew that Bill and Fleur had invited Ginny along, not that Harry was coming as well.

* * *

At the end of Ginny's birthday, Harry and Ginny resigned to telling the assembled Weasleys and friends the true reason for the celebration the next day. While Neville and Luna had been a big help in making everybody plan for really nice clothes for the occasion, without giving up just what would take place, the Weasleys were mostly kept in ignorance.

"Everybody, we would like to tell you something," Ginny called out.

"Oh, what is it, Ginny dear?" Molly Weasley asked kindly.

"Well, you all know about the party that will take place tomorrow and for which you were all asked to keep your schedules cleared. And that you all wondered what kind of occasion it would be and why there was the part in the invitation that all would be revealed within two days before the event," Ginny pointed out, "Well, now it is time to tell you, as the official invitations that didn't go to family changed yesterday."

"Oh, so we finally find out the big secret?" Fred asked eagerly.

"Certainly an achievement to manage keeping things secret that long," George praised.

"Well, the press would have gone crazy, had they even suspected it," Harry stated, "The celebration tomorrow, which is the reason why we told you to plan for really nice clothes to be worn, will be for Ginny's and my wedding."

A collective 'WHAT?' was shouted by nearly all Weasleys and some others.

"But you aren't even a couple, you only dated for two or three weeks at the end of our sixth year before breaking up!" Ron protested.

"That was a ruse," Harry replied, "Ginny and I have actually been together since New Year 1996. We just kept it a secret from everybody to prevent that my enemies would target her. And back then Riddle was too big of a danger to ignore it. Later on, we didn't want her name to be dragged through the mud by slander that the press would have shown her, simply because the reporters couldn't leave me alone and needed sensational news to print and my name always sells papers. I asked Ginny to marry me after Riddle was finally dead and we had all the Death Eaters secured at Azkaban."

"You have been engaged that long and didn't tell us?" Molly asked angrily.

"We knew that you would go spare over wanting to plan the wedding, Mum, and, after seeing how you behaved when Bill married, I had already decided that when I would marry, I would make sure that this wouldn't repeat itself. The wedding will be held at McGonagall Castle, which has more than enough space for all our guests to fit. While the Burrow is nice, it would have meant a repeat of that craziness and I really didn't want that. So, we had to find a way to marry without eloping that didn't send you into that state of mind," Ginny declared, "Because I really want to have my family present when I marry my Harry."

Harry kissed her cheek and she looked at him happily.

"But you're too young to marry!" Ron protested.

"I'm seventeen years old as of today, which means I am an adult. And to your information, Ron, I sat my NEWTs already, thanks to Harry helping me catching up with the seventh-year material during the last term. I'm a fully qualified witch now with NEWTs in Charms, Transfiguration, DADA, Muggle Studies, Potions, Herbology, COMC and Ancient Runes," Ginny declared proudly, "Professor McGonagall has given those that wanted to go for the NEWTs a year early, thanks to the problems and terror of the Carrows, special permission to sit them, even if they weren't seventeen yet,"

"What? But how?" Percy spluttered.

"Very easily. Harry is a fantastic teacher and except for Ancient Runes, which he never took, he could help me with catching up on all the material. Fleur and Bill helped me with my Runes work during that one month break over Christmas and then again Easter. Not to mention that some of the older DA members took it and helped. And the ones resisting the Carrows had already made sure that they were at the top of their casting. The seventh-years had taught the sixth years a good number of spells that they learned in class to give them more ways to defend themselves and others. And honestly, if you understood the basics of the class of spells you covered in Transfiguration and Charms, which mostly is part of what's taught at the beginning of sixth year, you only needed to work out the nuances of every spell. Most spells are NEWT level because of power requirements. The worst part is learning how to cast silently in sixth year, everything else isn't that hard," Ginny pointed out.

The statement shocked many, but the twins were laughing like hyenas.

"Oh, that's too good a prank. Good one, little sis," George guffawed, "To have beaten Hermione and Percy in the education department when you really like playing Quidditch better than studying."

"And all while keeping your relationship with Harry secret, you're really worthy of being our little sister," Fred added, holding his stomach because he was laughing so hard.

Harry and Ginny gave the twins a bright grin, not regretting anything at all.

"But why marry so young? Don't you want to explore the magical world on your own for a while?" Hermione asked, not understanding how somebody would want to bind himself this early on.

"We want to explore the world, Hermione, but we want to do it together. For the next year we plan to travel and see what other countries have to offer. As Ginny doesn't have to return to Hogwarts for her last year, having passed her NEWTs, we can simply take that year that everybody expected her to stay there to find what we really want to do in life. It was a good thing that anybody was allowed to apply for their NEWTs that wanted to, as long as they had passed their OWLs. There were many that wanted to get out of the school as soon as possible, thanks to the traumatic memories. Otherwise we would have needed to think up an alternative," Harry replied.

"Didn't you want to become an auror, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I don't know right now, Ron. I actually don't have much motivation to chase dark wizards for a living. And I want to get some freedom in my life finally. I don't want to be tied down to one place by a job right now. I never was free so far. I want to feel it, now that I finally have it. With how we ensured that all the Death Eaters were caught, I now have other options and don't have to constantly look over my shoulder and I want to get away from the press for a while," Harry replied, "I want to spend as much time as I can with Ginny and we will see where we go from there."

Ginny pecked him on the lips and he smiled at her lovingly.

* * *

The wedding the next day was like Harry and Ginny had envisioned it. While Molly was a bit hysteric about not being involved in the planning, it was a beautiful ceremony. There wasn't even one reporter present, as Kingsley had, as a kind of wedding present, set up a press event to demonstrate the new training methods for the auror academy, supposedly to assure the people that the new Ministry took their safety much more serious than the old one. The preview into the normally secluded auror training was much more interesting than any kind of graduation party, which everybody assumed was the party at McGonagall castle. All their guests celebrated all day with the happy couple. At ten in the evening Harry and Ginny left the party to continue without them, having a portkey to take them to Morocco for their honeymoon at eleven. They had already packed all their bags and only needed to change out of their wedding robes.

Once they arrived at their hotel, their clothes didn't stay on for very long, and they celebrated their wedding night for many hours, with Harry being very creative in how to please his new wife. Ginny certainly approved of his technique.

* * *

Molly Weasley sat in her kitchen at the Burrow and read the new letter that Harry's and Ginny's new owl, Athena, had brought her. Harry had pushed getting a new owl away as long as he could, but Ginny had finally convinced him that they needed one and that it wasn't meant to replace Hedwig. The boy had really loved that owl. Ironically the new owl could have passed for Hedwig's chick. She was a young snowy owl and she was as intelligent as her predecessor. The shop owner said that the eggs had been found in early August 1997 close to London and they had managed to save two of the four eggs. The snowy owl that Harry and Ginny had bought had been really picky in choosing new owners and had only accepted the two of them.

Perhaps it was fate. The two wrote about their trip to Italy, which they had gone on after their honeymoon in Morocco. They had taken a week to explore Rome and then gone to stay a week at a hotel close to the beach of the Adriatic coast. The descriptions of the sights they had seen, both muggle and magical, sounded great and Molly was happy that her daughter and son-in-law had a great time, but she really wished that they had told them earlier. She wasn't really happy that Ginny was married at such a young age. Even if she was incredibly proud that she had managed to sit her NEWTs one year earlier than all other students. None of her other children had achieved that. And her graded had all been Exceeds Expectations or better.

Harry and Ginny had also included photos of their trip, some of them were both of them posing in front of one of the sights they described, others of just one of them, and some without them, simply showing landscapes or famous buildings. Ginny also had sent her three recipes for typically Italian dishes. She had really enjoyed trying a lot of new things and she knew that Molly loved to collect recipes from all over the world whenever she could. Her family didn't care if the food was typically British, they just cared that it tasted great and Molly could rightfully say that she was an amazing cook. Molly would try those recipes soon. They sounded great. Especially that dessert called panna cotta.

When she put the last of the photos, one with both standing in front of the Coliseum, to the side, Hermione entered the room through the door from the staircase. She was going to start at the Ministry in a week and had decided to spend this last week here to have as much time as possible with her boyfriend.

"Good morning, Mrs Weasley, is that a new letter from Harry and Ginny?" Hermione asked, looking at the pictures.

"Yes, they are in Italy right now. It seems that they are very happy and have seen a lot of things. Ginny mentioned planning to visit the collection about old wizarding art in Venice next. They have done a lot of sightseeing in Rome and a time for simple vacation at the beach so far. They are mixing educational parts with entertainment. She also sent me three new recipes for my collection," Molly told Hermione.

"That sounds great," Hermione said, but she didn't sound really enthusiastic.

"What's wrong, dear?" Molly asked knowingly.

"I just have problems taking it in. I don't know how I couldn't realise that Harry and Ginny have been a couple for that long. I mean, Neville confirmed it and said that he knew that they were one at least since Easter break in our fifth year. And how he thought it entertaining that nobody but him seemed to realise. Not even Ron and me. What kind of friends does that make us?" Hermione asked.

"I know how sneaky my daughter can be and Harry isn't that far behind her in that regard. I'm not surprised that they managed to keep it a secret. Especially with You-Know-Who and his followers targeting Harry, it was probably a wise decision. I just don't like that they didn't tell us after the war was over. I mean, I can somewhat understand that they didn't want me to overdo it like at Bill's wedding, but it really is hard to take that I didn't get to plan my only daughter's wedding. But I guess I like that better than them eloping to avoid the hassle all together," Molly replied.

"Aren't you concerned that they are rushing things? I mean, I'm nearly a year older than Harry and I feel nowhere near ready to marry," Hermione asked.

"The time when you feel ready is different for everybody. I certainly wish they would have waited for longer, but I had to admit, not without long talks to Bill and Arthur, that Harry and Ginny sadly had to grow up way earlier than other children. And as much as we tried to be there for Harry, we weren't his parents. Not even Sirius could claim being like a true parent for Harry, even if it wasn't really his fault. He didn't get to spend much time with Harry. Harry only could rely on himself since he was very young and Ginny lost her innocence over the incident with that cursed diary. It leaves traces on somebody, Hermione. You can't imagine how grateful I am for the way things worked out in the end, that none of my children died in that horrible war and that we managed to end it after just four months of Ministry takeover. It could have become much, much worse," Molly commented emotionally.

Hermione had to accept that Molly was right. She had only seen a small part of the war, being on the run all the time. She didn't have any direct confrontations with the Death Eaters, like others had had. The muggleborn trials had been the worst part she had experienced. She hadn't been part of the strike teams that went to take Malfoy Manor and the Ministry. She had been part of the team that brewed the necessary potions for the ones that fought and did research on keeping the ones caught secured, made plans to enact once the Ministry was back under their control for Kingsley to use and went through decades of biased laws to see which ones needed to be abolished immediately before certain elements could regain their influence and stop them.

Harry had been in the thick of things and Ginny had led the resistance against the Carrows at Hogwarts. She had real trouble believing what had happened at the school, but Neville had been merciless in telling people what had taken place at the supposedly safest place in the country. Torture of students, withholding of food and drinks to suppress rebellion, rape of girls that were unlucky enough to capture the eye of certain junior Death Eaters or Amycus Carrow and constant surveillance of their actions. It wasn't the Hogwarts Hermione had known. Even Umbridge's reign hadn't been as bad.

"Will Harry and Ginny come back anytime soon?" Hermione asked.

"They haven't decided yet. There is so much Harry wants to see, and Ginny isn't any less enthusiastic. I don't have any idea where they got the money for this kind of extended travel, but Harry has it covered in both the magical and the muggle world. I saw the statement from his muggle account and he had over nine million Pounds on his account. And Ginny said that they hadn't spared any expenses in remodelling Grimmauld Place beforehand," Molly told her.

"How would he get that much money? I mean, the exchange rate from Galleons to Pounds is one to fifty," She wondered.

"Oh, I know that part," Fred spoke up, his twin trailing behind him, both coming in through the front door for the Sunday morning brunch that the Weasleys had agreed to take each week to regularly meet.

"Yes?" Hermione asked curiously.

"During the war the goblins couldn't get rid of the muggle money that they had got over the years fast enough. It was already hard for them to get it away, but before the take-over there was at least some regular exchange going on when the Ministry sent people on jobs into the muggle world to keep an eye on certain places. Or when muggleborns went to visit muggle relatives. They didn't expect that You-Know-Who would be defeated any time soon, if ever, and saw the muggle currency as a liability. They gave you ten times the normal exchange rate, if you just took that useless paper out of their hands. Guess Harry found out and used the fact," Fred explained.

"But that's theft!" Hermione protested.

"How can it be theft if Harry didn't force them into it? Face it, it was absolutely legal and only using knowledge that others could also have attained. He exchanged his own money and got what the goblins were willing to pay for it. Nothing more and nothing less," George declared.

"And you should really stop always thinking badly of Harry. He doesn't deserve that," Fred continued.

"I don't always think badly of him. He's my friend," Hermione protested.

"The Potions book," George started.

"Malfoy being a Death Eater," Fred continued.

"The locations of the items," George added.

"Harry's stance about house elves, and I could go on. Now you accuse him of theft, just because he found a clever way to become rich that doesn't fit into your narrow definition of right and wrong. Stop it, you aren't doing yourself any favours," Fred ended the telling off.

"Please stop it, boys. But they are right. Harry didn't do anything wrong. Now come on, we have to set the table and I need to get the food started so that it is ready when Bill and Fleur arrive," Molly stated, ending the argument.

Hermione frowned. Why did everybody always point out her mistakes like that and thought that Harry didn't do anything wrong, even when he cheated?

* * *

Harry looked at Ginny, who had just come from the sea, only wearing a very small, dark blue string bikini. He loved seeing her in this kind of clothes. He found his wife dead sexy and he showed her his love and appreciation whenever he could. Blame him being a horny teenager, he was just eighteen after all, or the fact that his wife was incredibly beautiful. It didn't really matter. He was happy. Truly happy. He had Ginny by his side, they were seeing parts of the world that he had dreamed about visiting when he had been younger, he couldn't really say he had been a child, as he hadn't been allowed to be one, except in age, and they simply enjoyed life. No fighting, no escaping the press, no interfering people that decided that they had a right to take their choices away from them. Just the two of them.

It was paradise to Harry. He knew that today was their last day in France, as they had tickets for a plane to Greece the next morning at five. It would mean getting up very early, but they also knew that travelling the muggle way kept them under the radar of the wizarding world. They knew from a letter that the Weasleys had sent to them with Athena that the news about Harry and Ginny being married had broken and that there was a frenzy to get them for an interview by all reporters. Nothing they wanted to deal with. Kingsley had passed a law that the press was forbidden to write anything without having proof of it, as nobody wanted to return to times where a bad government only needed to dictate what to write and the masses would believe it.

Those that were targeted by articles had the right to sue for libel, if they had proof that the reporter had made up the whole, or most of the story. It was a nightmare for people like Skeeter. But the people took it well. Therefore, only the prepared wedding notice had appeared under the social announcements. It had actually taken three days before most people realised that the hero of the war was already married. The inquiries with the Weasleys and the Ministry had only given them some basic information, which wasn't in any way sensational enough for the rumour mongers. Harry and Ginny had married at McGonagall castle on the twelfth of August and had then left for their honeymoon. The Weasleys refused telling the reporters where they went, instead asked of respecting their privacy. Ginny's early graduation from Hogwarts was subject to public information, so that was mentioned as well, next to Harry's own achievements.

Speculations where the couple was now, it was only known that they were travelling together to explore more of the world and learn how other countries used magic, flew around a lot, but nobody had seen hide nor hair of the two and they wanted to keep it like that. Greece had a long history of magic use and they wanted to see the old temples that ancient wizards had used to create a cult that treated them like gods.

It was actually fairly impressive. None of the muggles knew how the gods really looked like, therefore there wasn't just one 'god', there were families that played the god. For example, the god of war, Ares, had been a family of wizarding warriors, which used the worshipping to get enough soldiers for their exploits, all in the name of the god Ares. Magic made it easy to appear like a divine being to the muggles, who didn't understand as much of the world around them back then as they did these days. The temples were places where those that didn't play the role worked as priests, priestesses and oracles to trick the people to continue believing in their family's superiority and leaving gold and other sacrifices there.

The Greek Legends were all based around that. And it had held up until the much more militaristic and united Roman Empire had conquered the country. The wizards mostly managed to integrate into the Roman pantheon of gods and continued their lives. A change of name, for example the Zeus family became the Jupiter family, an arranged marriage helped along with it, as the Roman wizards didn't give the Greek ones any trouble as long as they played along, and other families did similarly. Over time it was mostly brushed off as the Greek worshipping the same god, just under another name. Which could be explained with different languages. The Romans were actually afraid to offend any god they didn't know about and built shrines in honour of 'the unknown god'. Better safe than sorry on that part.

"And, ready to go back to the apartment?" Ginny asked Harry.

"Sure. We need to get up early tomorrow after all," Harry confirmed.

"I would rather simply stay awake with you and then sleep after we arrive in Greece," Ginny suggested coyly.

"I wouldn't protest that idea at all," Harry grinned and pulled her into his arms for a kiss.

"Hm, I wonder if you have the stamina to last all night," Ginny teased.

"Why don't we find out, dear?" Harry asked and quickly pulled Ginny into his arms bridal style, which made her laugh, and then apparated them into their apartment to prove that he could last that long. A nice shower together would be a great start.

* * *

Arthur looked at the newest photos that Harry and Ginny had sent them. He was happy to see his only daughter looking this well at the side of her husband. It was still hard to take that his youngest was already married, but he could see clear as day that this was what she really wanted. He could only shake his head that none of the other Weasleys had noticed the relationship. They had really failed after the war had ended. It was understandable that they weren't at their best, too many friends had died, but to fully ignore that Ginny and Harry were a couple for over a year was really not good. It could have ended totally different, if they hadn't taken it as lightly as they did. They could have resented them for not taking enough notice of their lives to realise that they had found true love.

But the one thing they did to slightly pay them back was planning their wedding in secret and not involving any others in the preparations. He felt they kind of deserved that one. He should have paid Ginny more attention. And Harry, he had lost so much during the war and nobody had been there for him. Except Ginny. But they too should have been there for him. And they hadn't been. Had been too stricken by grief and needing to work in repairing the damage caused by the Death Eaters to help the one that sacrificed so much for their world. For the peace they now enjoyed.

He knew, if just for that reason, he would support the marriage between Harry and Ginny and their decisions what to do with their lives. He was working on reigning Molly and Hermione's sometimes harsh comments about the early marriage of the two in. He knew that Molly was hurt by not being given the chance to help plan the wedding. And that nobody had asked for her opinion, which she would have given, insisting that they waited longer before taking this final step. And Hermione really had a problem accepting that others knew better than her. Well, she would understand soon. Working under people that had different opinions than her and told her that they were in charge would surely help with that.

Many of the pictures were from all around Greece. There were some of the couple posing in front of sights, others showed the sea where sea creatures were jumping out of the water. He had never really seen animals like them. He knew that they were some kind of non-magical animals, but he had never really got out of England much and when, never gone to the sea and taken trips on muggle boats, which Harry and Ginny had written they had done. Supposedly the creatures were called dolphins and were very popular with muggles. He somewhat envied the two. They got to see the world on their own terms and didn't have any restrictions to their travelling, as the goblins had basically made them really rich in the muggle world.

He hoped that they would get whatever drove them to travel out of their systems and let them settle down peacefully once they had decided to come back and start working. He had decided to just let them enjoy their lives while they were young. They had had more than enough hardships for a lifetime.

* * *

Harry and Ginny sat together at the breakfast table and looked at possible places where to travel to next. They had visited a good part of Europe by now and the logical step would be to target places on other continents. Currently they were in Norway. They had been travelling for seven months now and didn't really feel the need to return home. They were having too much fun and had learned a good deal of magic while exploring the countries they visited. For example, certain charms that were used by wizards in the southern countries at the coast to fish or dive for pearls. Then Ginny and he had collected cooking charms that were needed for certain dishes that they both loved to eat. While Ginny wasn't like her mother in feeling the need to cook all meals, she liked cooking well enough and loved trying new recipes.

Harry was much the same, as long as he got to cook for people that he loved. The Dursleys hadn't soured that activity for him, just made him resent being forced to cook for them, as they never appreciated the results. Ginny praised him whenever he cooked something for her and it tasted great.

"I think we should avoid China. The political climate among the magical part is too dangerous to go there," Ginny told Harry.

"Hm, I wouldn't want to go into a country where we would have to fight again. Perhaps India?" Harry asked.

"It has potential," Ginny nodded, "Russia would be too cold this time of the year."

"Yes, it would be. I also would like to see Japan and Australia," Harry suggested.

"Hm, the Japanese use of magic would be fascinating to learn," Ginny said, "There are many ways of using magic that were always dismissed as ridiculous in Europe, but for some reason the Japanese wizards always managed to prevent an invasion of their country."

"One more reason to see what it's all about," Harry declared.

"Australia would also be great. The Aborigine tribes are known for powerful wandless magic. We could learn a lot from them. But we would probably need to invest at least three months there to really get the basics," Ginny looked over the information they had on the countries.

"That part wouldn't really be a problem. In Europe we only spent shorter periods of time in each country, as the way magic is used is always based on Latin, thanks to the influence the Roman Empire had on the development of the countries there. Northern Africa is also strongly influenced by it, next to the rule of the Egyptian pharaohs. We could use what we learned at Hogwarts to simply add spells, rituals and potions that were unique to those places to our knowledge. And, thanks to translation charms, we got a long way by simply buying several books on magic that we found fascinating. But with a totally different culture and historical roots, it will take a bit longer to learn new things," Harry commented.

"Yes, you're right and I'm excited about it. Think what we could bring back once we are finished," Ginny told him.

Harry nodded smiling. He liked how eager his wife was to learn new magic. She was very intelligent, but she didn't rub it in like Hermione often did. And she acknowledged that he was intelligent as well. He didn't feel like he had to hide what he could do and that he was smart. At school, he knew, he had held back until Ginny had told him that he was stupid to not do his best, just to not hurt Ron and Hermione's feelings. He had sat a few NEWTs at the Ministry again and could now proudly say that he had nine NEWTs. The five in the classes he had taken at Hogwarts, those being the five required to become an auror, a career that looked less probable now than when he had career counselling, next to Arithmancy, Duelling, COMC and Languages. He had found a way to learn languages quickly, he suspected that Barty Crouch also used it to learn over forty languages, which Percy had boasted about when he had worked in his department.

Ginny had also used that method and by now both spoke ten languages fluently. It really wasn't hard if you knew that method. You had to brew a potion and have a special type of cloth soak in it for one week. Then you could tie the cloth around your neck like a necklace, in fact Harry had made it into one with a dragon charm on the end, and you would get all the information about a language that you heard within a week of being in constant contact with the native speakers. The best part was, you only needed to create the cloth once and it would hold for five years. Harry had learned about the method from Fleur and she had shown him how to brew the potion. All the Beauxbatons students had been taught that method when they had travelled to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament.

And Fleur mostly had trouble with pronunciation, as that was one thing the method needed more time for. Her grammar and choice of words was alright. Harry and Ginny had the same trouble until they had assembled more experience in how the locals pronounced words. Still, they were normally welcomed happily, as most appreciated their efforts to learn the native language. Both in the muggle and magical worlds.

* * *

Okay, hopefully the next chapter will work out in being uploaded without a problem. Then it will be posted tomorrow :)


	3. Big Plans

**And here is the last chapter of this Little Story. Hope you enjoyed it. I want to thank all those that left comments or put the Story onto the favourites lists.**

* * *

 **Big Plans**

It had been three and a half years since Harry and Ginny had started their travels. They had come home for short visits occasionally, but normally they only stayed for a week at a time, simply because the reporters wouldn't take a hint. They had come back for the birth of Fleur and Bill's daughter Victoire and then for the thirtieth wedding anniversary of Molly and Arthur Weasley. There was a huge party at the Burrow to celebrate the occasion and neither of the two wanted to miss it. Now, after having studied all kinds of magic all over the world, they were ready to return to the country of their birth.

Kreacher and Dobby had kept Grimmauld Place in good shape and they moved back in after landing late in the evening with their flight from New York. They had spent the last twenty-two months travelling around the USA, leaning a lot from local shamans and they had even got a tour of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Massachusetts. They had befriended the deputy headmaster there and he had offered them to get an idea how other schools in the world worked and which classes they taught. They had been fascinated by the research into turning muggle devices into magical counterparts and connecting them to the normal muggle networks without interfering with them. It was still a work in progress, but they could add up to one hundred magical mobile phones to a net before it caused problems.

The internet was so far out of their reach, but they were confident that they would succeed within the next five years. A solely magical network was already in the pilot phase. But, to keep up with muggle developments, they needed the connection to the real thing. Otherwise the Statute of Secrecy wouldn't hold up very long. Harry and Ginny took a few very interesting ideas with them, which they planned to suggest to Kingsley, who was still the British Minister for Magic.

"Well, home sweet home," Harry stated grinning.

"Yes, and this time we get to spend much more time here than before," Ginny commented, kissing his cheek.

"True, your Mum will be very happy about it," Harry nodded.

"She will also be on our case to finally take up proper jobs and not jet around the world irresponsibly," Ginny mimicked her mother's constant complaints.

Just because they had taken their time to study foreign magic for longer than initially planned, she had been on their case continuously. But Harry and Ginny didn't see any reason to return to start working until they felt ready for it. The time was as much used to study as it was to work through some lingering mental problems that both of them had. What neither had told any of their families was that over the last two years, Harry had studied psychology and mind healing as his main subjects and Ginny had decided to look into becoming the magical version of a veterinarian. There were courses you could take at magical universities in the States that gave you the qualifications needed for the job. As they had inadvertently learned a lot of the basics during their travels, Harry was now a fully qualified mind healer and Ginny a veterinarian for magical creatures.

After having experienced how problematic it could be if traumatic events weren't addressed and worked through with professional, or really any, help, Harry had decided to start making that his future profession. A mind healer needed to be competent in Potions, Charms, Defensive Magic, Herbology and of course the subjects specific to the job, meaning the mind arts and psychology. Runes were an advantage, but not a requirement, and he had learned a few specific ones to be able to use devices that mind healers in the United States had developed to help patients. Harry planned to set up his own practice and work in cooperation with St. Mungo's and Hogwarts. He would also attempt to train others in the field, as Wizarding Great Britain was very far behind the Magical United States in the development of methods to treat mental problems.

The States were leading in the field, followed by countries like Australia, Japan and Canada. There was a regular exchange of information about new developments in the field. Insights from muggles in psychiatry had inspired magicals in those countries to research possibilities in the fields and it had snowballed from there. The appearances of two dark lords in one century had thrown Europe back in their development, as they mostly had worked on ways to counter the tactics of said dark lords. Not very successful in the case of Britain, admittedly.

Ginny had another project. She had been inspired by how muggles worked to preserve endangered species in the world and how many zoos played an important role in that endeavour. There were a high number of endangered magical creatures as well. Harry and her had looked for a large area of land that could be kept hidden from the muggles, where they could create the first British magical zoo, in part to show the wizards and witches of Britain the wonders of the creatures, and in part to breed endangered species to increase their numbers again and to return some of them into the wild to repopulate the remaining populations.

Thanks to clever investment strategies and getting out of the stock market before the bubble burst in the muggle world, they had multiplied their fortune many times. They had more than enough muggle money to buy the land needed to build the zoo and of course Harry's practice. He didn't need that much space anyway. One spacious house would be enough for his needs. Part to train apprentices and part to treat patients.

"Well, she will get a surprise when we reveal our plans. When do you think we should send Athena with a letter that we're back?" Harry asked.

"Not before the day after tomorrow. I want to sleep to get over the jetlag and relax for a day. She would come over nearly at once, as soon as she got the letter," Ginny replied.

"I have no problem with that. I have been looking forward to sleeping in our own bed again," Harry told her, Ginny catching the double meaning immediately. Even after three years of marriage, they both were very much enjoying the physical side of it.

"Catch me if you can!" She challenged and shot away, towards the stairs, Harry close on her heels.

He caught her on the first floor and pressed her hands over her head while capturing her mouth with his own and trapping her body between his and the wall.

* * *

Molly Weasley looked expectantly at the snowy owl that had just delivered the newest letter from her daughter and son-in-law. She really hoped that they would return home soon. While she had tried being understanding of their wish to see the world, three and a half years of that nonsense really were over the top. She was firmly convinced that they should start learning a decent profession and start thinking of their future. They couldn't just live into the day. Even the twins, as much as she didn't fully approve of their shop idea, had become honourable businessmen. It wasn't her favoured career, but they were doing very well and worked together with the Law Enforcement Department of the Ministry and the counterparts of the Ministries in other countries next to their joke business.

Percy had a respectable career at the Ministry and Ron was close to becoming an auror. He was also close to finally proposing to Hermione, the dear girl. Hermione had calmed down a lot after being confronted with the reality of things when she had taken up a position at the Ministry as well. She had finally accepted that she wasn't always right, even if it had been a hard road to that point. How she wished that her youngest would finally come to her senses. She took the letter from Athena and the owl flew out of the window again, obviously not expecting an answer. She opened the letter and started reading. Her face broke into a bright smile.

"Oh, how wonderful!" She exclaimed, surprising her granddaughter Victoire, who was playing on the ground.

She was babysitting for Fleur today, as she had to get some work done that she needed to concentrate on. A toddler was more of a distraction in that and with some of the things Bill and Fleur worked on, it was too dangerous. Fleur had gone into the department that inspected heirlooms for clients for high fees in the name of Gringotts. Everybody knew that Gringotts employed the best curse breakers in the country and therefore, especially in the aftermath of the war, where many dark families lost their heads of house or were extinct in the main line, many vaults remained filled with valuable, but often cursed items.

Gringotts offered a service to have everything checked and possible curses broken, for a fee of course. After Victoire had turned two, Fleur had gone back to work part time. As she was a very good curse breaker, the goblins agreed to the arrangement. She went to work three times in the mornings and three times in the afternoon. Molly eagerly agreed to look after her darling granddaughter for the hours that her mother was working. While she couldn't understand why Fleur wouldn't stay at home with her child, she could accept that Bill and Fleur wanted to save up as much money as possible to be ready when they had their next children. They had told her that in a year or two they planned to have a second one and get three overall, if it was meant to be.

Having lived through the experience of not having much money available in the house, she could understand why they both thought it was a good idea to prepare for the time that Fleur would stay at home full-time. And really, it was a pleasure to look after the little girl.

"Nana?" Victoire asked confused.

"Oh, Tory, a wonderful thing happened, your Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry are back," She told the little girl.

"Aun' Inny?" She asked, not really remembering the name.

Molly didn't show her grandchild her displeasure at her lack of knowledge of her aunt and uncle. They hadn't been around enough for Victoire to have any memories of them. It was only one more sign that they had been gone for too long. She pondered when she would go to see the two. They had written that they would come over on Saturday for dinner. That would never do and she had a few things to say to them before that. Well, Fleur would come back at one and then she could apparate to London to see the two.

* * *

Ginny opened the door and smiled at her parents who had both come to see her and Harry.

"Mum, Dad, please come in. It's so good to see you again," Ginny greeted them both with hugs.

"It's good to see you too, Ginny. You're looking really good," Arthur replied.

Molly nodded and smiled at her youngest. The stern talking to could wait a while longer, until she had properly greeted the two missing members of her family.

"Why don't we go to the lounge and I'll have Dobby serve tea," Ginny suggested.

"Tea sounds lovely, dear," Molly agreed.

They followed Ginny into the lounge and took seats.

"Dobby!" Ginny called.

"Mistress called for Dobby?" Dobby asked happily.

"Yes, would you please prepare tea for us and tell Harry that my parents are here?" She asked

"Dobby will do so directly," He nodded eagerly and popped away.

"Still as excited as always," Arthur commented smiling.

"Yes, he's very happy that we have come back to Grimmauld Place. And that we're going to stay here now. While house elves can pop to any place their masters are, he wasn't too happy that he didn't have a house which he could clean that belonged to us. With our studying in different places all the time, it wasn't really feasible to buy property anywhere," Ginny explained.

"I see. What about Kreacher?" Arthur asked.

"He's becoming really old and we refrain from letting him work too much. Just cleaning the kitchen, as he has always seen that place as his personal territory. He would be unhappy to not be allowed to do that. We fear that he doesn't have to live much longer. Thankfully Dobby looks out for him and makes sure that he doesn't overwork himself," Ginny answered, "We will be sad when it's time for him to go. He was a very valuable help to Harry in finding the horcruxes and after that certainly was a wonderful elf to our family."

"Yes, I wouldn't have expected him to ever change from the way he was when the Order used the house as headquarters," Molly agreed.

Then the door opened and Harry walked inside.

"Molly, Arthur, good to see you," Harry greeted them warmly, shaking his father-in-law's hand and kissing Molly's cheek.

"Harry, it's great that you and Ginny are back," Arthur said.

"I truly hope for good this time. It has been long enough," Molly started on the part that they knew she would want to address.

"Yes, we have decided that it's time to get started with our plans here. We have finished our degrees in the USA and are ready to get started. And we can still travel for vacations," Harry answered.

"What degrees? You didn't mention that in your letters," Molly asked surprised.

"It was meant to be a surprise, Mum," Ginny explained and then Dobby popped in with the tea. He served them all and left again, saying he would check the inventory of the storage room.

"Ginny and I decided in which areas we wanted to work in the future while we travelled and studied different kinds of magic. For the last two years were went to lectures at magical universities in the States, where the subjects we wanted to study are a lot father developed and researched than they are here in Europe. We became aware of them while travelling Japan. Ginny has a degree in Magical Veterinary and I have one in Mind Healing, next to a full one in muggle Psychology, as they go hand in hand," Harry told them.

"Really? That's impressive," Arthur commented.

"What exactly does a mind healer do? I know about magical creatures' healers," Molly asked.

"It's basically that it deals with illnesses of the mind. Like traumas caused by extreme circumstances, like big accidents, wars, abuse and sometimes spells and magical creatures. Like those that have been in contact with dementors. Here in England, the only known remedy is chocolate that deals with the immediate effects, but the terror they cause isn't treated and you are left alone to deal with it. A mind healer learns how to help patients to overcome those terrors," Harry explained.

"It would have been great if the field had been known when I was back after the Chamber of Secrets. I could have used the help of one," Ginny said, "I have learned a few of the things Harry studied, simply by quizzing him for tests, and a lot of things would have been immensely helpful while trying to deal with what had happened to me. His field deals with how the mind of a human being works and there are techniques you can use to face your fears."

"That sounds complicated," Molly mentioned.

"It is an intensive area of study, that's certainly true. I only managed to finish in two years, because Ginny and I had coincidentally already studied related fields of magic during our travels. Like mind magic in Japan. The magical monks there taught us far more than the known Legilimency and Occlumency that are about what people in England think about when they hear about the mind arts. While they practice that as well, they use certain meditation techniques to really explore the mind, both the physical form as well as the spiritual form. If you master those different techniques, you can find the exact location of an injury to the brain for example. Or how a person has retreated from the world to avoid pain or is too afraid to face something," Harry explained, "It turned out that normally you need to start off with similar techniques before you are allowed into the advanced courses that lead to the degree.

"The Professor teaching the subject was more than impressed with the knowledge I already had and after testing my level in all areas, he allowed me to skip the basic studies, which normally take another one and a half to two years. I also taught him the techniques in my free time, as they are more effective than the standard methods. I held a few lectures on my experiences during my last year of studies as well. It was fascinating. People in the States were very eager to increase their knowledge of foreign methods in the field and we performed several experiments while I was studying. Our results were published in medical magazines. I even was invited to attend a convention for Mind Healing two months before I got my degree. It was very interesting to listen to the results of other researchers in the field, next to practicing mind healers."

"And you plan to work for St. Mungo's then?" Arthur asked.

"No, I'm going to open my own practice. I'm going to see what kind of houses are available either close to or in Diagon Alley, or in Hogsmeade. I'm going to offer both St. Mungo's and Hogwarts a cooperation that they can call me if they have patients that would need a mind healer. But, as I'm the only one in the country right now, I also see it as my job to spread the field farther. I'm going to see if I can find a student or two that I can teach the basics of the art and then perhaps send them over to the States to finish their studies at one of the universities. Perhaps St. Mungo's even has some healers that are interested in specialising in this field, which can be part of the cooperation. This is a very underestimated field and we need more trained professionals to cover all the demand, which currently is simply labelled as 'unfortunate problems that normal healing doesn't cover'. The ones suffering most from them, normally end in the long-term ward of St. Mungo's," Harry replied.

"Like the Longbottoms?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, like them and even Lockhart. While no mind healer can bring back memories that were obliviated a long time ago, you get training on how to help a victim of that spell to regain his normal functionality. For example, Lockhart would have got sessions with a trained mind healer for an hour each day after being sent to St. Mungo's. It would include things on how to behave, what was socially acceptable, basics of history and what his life was before. It would probably take about a year, but after that he would be able to take up a basic job again and look after himself. Further sessions would deal with other things. You can also train those people, once they are moderately stable, to use basic spells for daily life again. Like summoning things, operating a stove and so on," Harry answered, "In fact, I'm going to offer Neville to have a look at his parents to see if I can find what's wrong with them. I doubt that they would still have the injuries to their nervous system that the cruciatus curse caused. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to walk around and things like that."

"If you could do that, it would be a medical miracle," Molly threw in.

"I will have to see what the situation is before I can promise anything. But I at least want to try. It's not fair that he has to suffer much more than I had to from the way his parents were taken from him," Harry softly said and Ginny put her hand onto his knee, which he gave her a warm smile for.

"And what are your plans, Ginny?" Molly asked.

"I'm going to work on preserving endangered magical species. I have collected a lot of information how muggles work to bring back endangered species of their animals and I want to do something similar with ones in the magical world. Next to that, I want to make many more magical people realise that we have a duty to the creatures that share our world and how wonderful they are. I'm going to create a magical zoo in an area that will be warded against muggles. Harry and I will be looking for a suitable location and then buy the land. We will need several hectares to make it really work. I have made some connections with preserves for different species all over the world and they promised to assist in setting up this project," Ginny said excitedly.

"But where would you get the money, not to mention that the kinds of property you are talking about are all in muggle hands," Arthur asked.

"Well, muggle money is really the last of our concerns," Ginny said happily.

"What do you mean, dear? I mean, I know you got very good deals in exchanging money with the goblins, but it wouldn't be enough for that kind of project," Molly asked, "Especially as you would have spent a good deal of money over the last three and a half years of traveling."

"I invested half of the money I made from that into the muggle stock market in solid companies that had a lot of potential for growth. I left the money to work for us for a few years and withdrew it when I noticed signals that it wouldn't last. I avoided the losses that many muggles made for not realising that things were going to burst. I multiplied that capital many times. Our estimations for the purchase of the land are that the mere price for the land itself will be around twenty million Pounds," Harry said.

"So much?" Arthur exclaimed shocked.

"Our muggle accounts hold overall two hundred seventy million Pounds, Arthur," Harry told his in-laws, "We can easily afford to buy the land."

Both gaped at them.

"How did you think we afforded not having to work and travelling all over the world?" Ginny asked laughing.

"B-But, how?" Arthur stuttered, "I know you donated high amounts of money for the rebuilding effort."

"That was money that I liberated from Riddle's followers to damage their side in the war. I didn't want anything to do with the money that they got through their illegal businesses. But I also didn't want the money to go to waste, therefore I asked Kingsley where to direct it, to actually help those that really needed it. And as I made sure that the Ministry had nothing to do with it, except for the information who needed help, nothing could disappear in the system. The foundation that I set up before leaving the country is a private institution that was financed with dirty money. But it was much better to do something good with it than shunning the money for how it was earned. The Death Eaters would scream in fury if they knew what I did with their wealth," Harry chuckled.

"We also still have a high amount of gold sitting in our vaults at Gringotts. Harry let the goblins invest the gold into ventures they thought best, as he really didn't have the time and patience to investigate if a company was a good investment or not. He promised his account manager ten per cent of the net profit and let him work, as he was much better qualified in this as Harry. The only condition that he gave was that he wouldn't invest in businesses owned by people that supported Riddle. It worked spectacularly. In just three years, he multiplied our starting amount by twelve and we don't intend to change the arrangement. It works wonderfully," Ginny pointed out.

Arthur and Molly were totally shocked. Sure, they had known that Harry came from old money, the Potters were among the wealthier families in their world, but this kind of monetary growth was unheard of.

"Not to mention that I get high returns from my original investment into Fred and George's shop. They insisted to set up an investment vault for my third of their profits, telling me that it was only right to give me a share of the profits, as I gave them their starting capital. With how their business flourishes, I get a few hundred galleons each quarter as well. Knowing that we never had to worry about money, we could take our time to explore and study what we wanted to do for our future. Even if we could easily let our money work for us and never work a day in our lives. But that would be too boring and we really want to bring change into our world here in England," Harry explained.

"I can't believe it. And here I worried about you wasting your money while not learning a proper job," Molly shook her head.

"You would never have believed us, had we told you everything before, Mum. Now that we're ready to get started, it wasn't a problem anymore. And even if, you would have worried too much about something going wrong. This way, we got to live our lives to the fullest for some years, got to see the world and know what we want to do in the future. It works out perfectly. And once we have set up the first magical zoo in the British Isles and have it running smoothly, we can think about expanding our family. Both Harry and I want to have children sometime in the future. But we're still young and have a few more years before we want to get started on that," Ginny told them.

"I see. Well, I can only wish you luck with your plans. It won't be easy, and many people will try to put stones in your way," Arthur warned.

"Well, they can't really do anything to stop us. Anybody with a degree can practice his craft in wizarding Britain. And anybody can set up a preserve for a type of magical creatures, as long as certain security and secrecy measures are taken. We looked up the laws to be sure. While most healers work for St. Mungo's, there is a big enough number working independently as well. And honestly, alone my name, as much as I don't like my fame, will do what is needed to make the possibility of consulting me for mind healing known," Harry pointed out.

They talked a bit longer, Harry and Ginny showed off more pictures in their photo albums from their travels and the younger couple promised to come for dinner on Saturday evening, for which Molly and Arthur would invite the whole family.

* * *

Harry and Ginny were busy until the weekend. First thing they did the day after meeting Molly and Arthur was looking up who owned certain large, uninhabited areas. They had talked about the possible location for the zoo and preserve combination before returning to England and they had narrowed the place down to three that would work perfectly. The first one turned out to have been made a nature sanctuary, which disqualified it for their use, but the other two were still valid options. They apparated to see the places and both seemed appropriate for their needs.

"I would prefer the island," Ginny told Harry in the evening, "That one would be easiest to ward against muggles."

"That's true. The one in Wales would need more work," Harry nodded, while holding Ginny close to his side.

"And it didn't look like the island had had any visitors in centuries. Well, it is a good deal away from the coast and there isn't anything of value for the muggles there," Ginny commented, "The cliffs make landing there by ship very hard and the little forest that can be found there isn't lucrative enough to make the effort."

"We just need to find out who owns the island. Then we can buy it. If it belongs to the government, it would probably be easy. They always need money and getting about twenty million Pounds for selling a useless place would certainly be considered a good deal. But the island is large enough for us to build the zoo and we can simply connect it to the floo network and set up apparition points for visitors," Harry agreed, "Not to mention the options for space multiplication that we learned from the Aborigines in Australia."

"Yes, I can't wait until we can get started. But for now, I would very much like you to do something for me," Ginny told Harry.

"And what would that be?" Harry asked, having an idea.

"Well, all the visiting of places to see if they would suit our needs has given me some tension in my muscles. As my husband it is your duty to help me get rid of them," Ginny informed him mock sternly.

"Then I will of course gladly perform my husbandly duties, my darling wife," He replied likewise, "How about we go up into our bedroom and I get started on your shoulders and work my way down," He suggested nibbling on her ear.

"A very good idea," She agreed and willingly let him lift her from the couch and apparate them up into their bedroom.

Neither of both ever noticed that Dobby popped into the room to clean up the cups of cold tea they had left behind.

"Dobby better makes sure that all reserve bedsheets are cleaned and ready to be put on the bed tomorrow. Master and

Mistress are practicing baby-making again. If only they would finally get to it," Dobby grumbled.

He really wanted for his wonderful master to have an heir of his own, but despite being married for this long, his master and mistress still hadn't decided to have that heir. Not for lack of practice, that much was sure.

* * *

It turned out that the island was owned by an old, nearly bankrupt noble, who had simply never found any use for the island. His family had got the land centuries ago by the king at the time and, as it was nearly inaccessible, not really found a reason to make the effort to go there often. He had only been there once in his life and found the place dreadfully boring. But, as nobody wanted to buy the island, he had had to live with it. When Ginny and Harry had approached him with questions how much he would want for the island, as it would make a nice place for vacations away from the hustle and bustle of the city, he had offered them that they could have the island for overall five million Pounds, as long as they paid the land registry themselves as well.

Harry had immediately agreed and asked to arrange an appointment with a solicitor to get the official part done. The old man, he was already eighty-one years old, was more than happy to be rid of the place, which had only cost him taxes, but hadn't been of any use, as he didn't have a helicopter to reach the island, probably the only way to get there. And even that was difficult, as there weren't many places to land. The man used the money to clear up his debts with the banks and still had about one and a half million Pounds left to spend on whatever he wanted. He was happy and Harry and Ginny were more than delighted to have got the land as cheap as they did. It left the fifteen million Pounds that they had calculated for the purchase for building the zoo.

Harry was also looking for a suitable house for his practice, but, so far, the houses he had visited didn't match his ideas. Therefore, he currently helped Ginny setting up the drafts for how she wanted the zoo to look like and how the mix between buildings and natural areas should be done. They already had an idea which creatures would be kept there. Nothing like dragons, as it was too dangerous to hold them in close quarters to other magical creatures, but unicorns, phoenixes, nifflers and many more would find a home there. Harry fully planned to ask Hagrid to see if he could get a few 'interesting creatures' through his contacts.

If anybody could find them rare creatures that were normally uncommon to have, it was Hagrid.

* * *

Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey listened to the story Harry and Ginny Potter were telling them about their three and a half years long travels after their wedding back in 1998.

"Well, I have to say, you truly made most out of your time," McGonagall commented after the two were done telling what they had seen and learned during the three and a half years, "I would also happily assist in realising the zoo project by letting the COMC classes help in setting the compounds up and getting the creatures settled in. It would certainly be great practical experience for the students in a fairly safe environment. And even Hagrid can't get all the creatures he wants to show to the students. This could be a great compromise to match his teaching plan without having to have the creatures running around Hogwarts."

"Certainly. We would be happy to let the Hogwarts classes have a discount for visits. Especially if we get a number of the students as helpers in the starting phase," Ginny promised, "This is as much a business as it is a project to preserve endangered magical species. And we plan to use Hagrid's contacts to get some of the more dangerous creatures. Of course, only once all security measures are in place. I don't want something like a manticore running around wild."

"No, I wouldn't either. Do you really want to have that kind of creatures there?" McGonagall asked.

"We need to present a mix of harmless and manageable dangerous creatures to make it interesting for the visitors. We won't have large creatures like dragons there, but anything that can reasonably be handled in size and danger potential will be there. For example, magical wolves. If you know how to handle them, they can be a great attraction for visitors," Ginny confirmed.

"Next to that, I suggested to include something similar to shows that are common in muggle zoos when the animals are fed. With magic we have less restrictions on what we can do space-wise, which means we could have animals that need large compounds, like dolphins or orcas there as well. We learned in Greece that there were smaller populations of magical subspecies as well and that they have been hunted strongly in the past for their uses in potions. We would see to it that we got one or two breeding couples for the start and then work on repopulating their species. The younger ones that can't be used for our breeding purposes, simply because we can't inbreed the lines without fearing illnesses to spread, will be traded to other magical zoos or returned to the wild," Harry pointed out, "We have also already decided to have some cute and tame animals that children will be allowed to pet, next to offering rides on ponies through certain parts of the zoo. Families with small children will probably be our main target audience and you have to offer something special to make them come to us, even after the initial visit. It is meant to be profitable for the long run after all."

"Yes, they would come more than once for that," Pomfrey agreed, "What made you decide to go into the medical field? You never showed much interest in it while you were at school, Mr Potter."

"Personal experiences and what Hermione dubbed my 'Saving People Thing'. I learned a lot during my travels and found out that other countries had ways to help people like me, who have been through a large number of traumatic events in their life. It made me wish that mind healing had also been known in Great Britain after my first year, when my touch caused Quirrell's body to burn. While he had already been as good as dead, according to Professor Dumbledore's words his body was eaten up from the inside by the possession from Riddle, it was still me that dealt the decisive strike. Then the Chamber of Secrets mess, the constant bullying against me, especially in my fourth and fifth years. Normally I should have broken under the stress and it certainly left scars on me. I can acknowledge that as fact. But getting help from experienced mind healers helped me lessen the impact.

"I want to help others in that area, as, if we are honest, there are hundreds if not thousands of people that need help to deal with the things the war caused. Be it loss of loved ones, being tortured by Death Eaters or losing everything they held dear. I didn't want to fight anymore after the war. I had enough. But I still wanted to help people. Being an auror sounded cool when I was fourteen, but not anymore when I was nearly eighteen and had just finished school. I actually didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, therefore travelling with my wife was the best I could do at that time. It let me gain distance from everything, especially with the press being their obnoxious selves," Harry explained.

"Well, I certainly will happily call you in when we have to deal with mental problems in children. I have long since said that something needed to be done to help those coming in from bad families, but the headmaster always said that nothing could be done, as the children belonged into their families. That it was the right thing. It didn't matter that some parents were totally unsuited to raise children and that many were abused. But beyond telling families that physically abused their children in the visible ways off, he didn't interfere," Pomfrey stated.

"I know, I lost count how often I asked him to leave the Dursleys," Harry grumbled.

"I wish we could have done more, but the protection the blood wards gave you were seen as more important than the less than acceptable living conditions you faced there," McGonagall sighed, "And as Sirius couldn't take you in, it was up to Professor Dumbledore to decide where you lived, as he had been given magical guardianship over you. It was a good thing he got that arranged as quickly as he did, as many darker families that had managed to bribe their way out of Azkaban after 1981 had petitioned to foster you. Only his influence stalled them. And nobody could argue against having you raised by close relatives."

"Theory and practice are once again very different things. Harry would have been much better off being raised by one of the teachers here at Hogwarts than with those monsters," Ginny declared icily.

The two older women wisely kept silent to that. They knew that Harry's childhood had been far from good, but there was nothing that could be done against the word of Albus Dumbledore.

"Do you already have rooms to open your mind healer practice?" Pomfrey asked.

"Not yet. I have been looking at several buildings, but so far none of them matched what I want," Harry answered, "I have looked in both muggle and wizarding areas. But with the muggle ones I have to be careful to not tip them off about magic, which disqualified two properties that would otherwise have been suitable. I can't simply guarantee that people will behave and keep to muggle security precautions if my name is involved. And those places were in London where there are talks about installing cameras all around for public safety. That would be a disaster of epic proportions if my practice was there as well."

"True, the muggles advance more and more with their technology and if the wizarding community doesn't catch up and learns how to blend in with them soon, our world will be exposed. I give it twenty years at most until the muggles have the means to get films of a wizard or witch using magic in a place they think they are unobserved in and let other muggles see it on their new development, the internet. As far as we found out so far, there aren't means to get it done directly, you need a computer at your home for that, but with how fast their technology is developed, it is just a question of time. You should start Muggle Studies as a mandatory class for all students up to fifth year, Professor," Ginny advised, "Thanks to our travels, I know more than normal British magicals about how muggles work around their lack of magic. And let me tell you, it doesn't stand behind our spells at all."

"I will take that into consideration, Mrs Potter," McGonagall nodded and wrote it down on a piece of parchment in front of her.

"You should look up the houses in Hogsmeade that are for sale, Mr Potter," Pomfrey threw in, "Several people want to move elsewhere, as many simply have too many bad memories of the oppression by the Death Eaters to stay in the place that always makes them remember. I know of at least three houses that are offered for sale."

"I will certainly see into it. And those people will also get information about the option of having meetings with me to treat their mind problems. That is exactly what my job entails after all," Harry stated.

They continued talking for a while longer, until Harry and Ginny returned to Grimmauld Place.

* * *

Over the next few weeks Harry's and Ginny' projects started to take form. They both knew it would be a long way until everything was set up, but they believed in their visions. Others also helped out, sometimes with involving their contacts elsewhere, for example, Professor McGonagall got Ginny in contact with Newt Scamander, who came with his grandson Rolf, as they were both magi-zoologists and very interested in her project of a zoo that also worked to preserve magical creatures.

Madam Pomfrey called some healers she knew and asked for patients that would benefit from visiting a qualified mind healer. Harry had found one house in Hogsmeade that met his needs and had remodelled it over the period of two weeks, before he began advertising his services through St. Mungo's. It would be a long road to establish this new field of healing in the country, but he was determined to see it through, and Ginny would always be right at his side.

As he had told Molly and Arthur, he went to St. Mungo's, with permission of Neville, and had a look at the Longbottoms. He found out that the reason why they didn't come out of their near catatonic state was a mental block, which they had created instinctively with their magic, when the pain from the cruciatus curse had become too much for them to bear. He had hope that he could slowly erode the block, but in the end, the last step had to be taken by Alice and Frank themselves. Neville wanted to try and see if Harry could bring them back, so he allowed him to meet them once a day, as Harry didn't have many patients yet, he could easily manage that part.

Harry started with mapping out the minds of both Alice and Frank and then sent stimulating impulses directly into different parts of their brains, where he let them see, hear or otherwise experience images that they would see as positive, trying to coax them towards them. Like baby laughter, phoenix song, soft melodies on the piano, the smell of their favourite flowers or food and other things they had liked in the past, for which the information had been supplied by Augusta Longbottom, who by now was willing to try anything that might have a chance to heal them. The first results after a week of doing so were promising. Their brains were active in the parts that Harry had hoped to stimulate.

They continued the treatment for four weeks before Harry added to it. He asked the healers of St. Mungo's to add positive physical experiences to the program, like warm baths with well-smelling herbs in the water, which had been proven to open up the mind. Soft music supported the opening of their minds. Then they were to be made touching different kinds of materials, none of them unpleasant or painful. They experimented which ones worked best for this. Neville was very diligent to perform this part each day, as Harry couldn't be there all the time, and things like this Neville could easily take over. Augusta also supported it.

After two months, Harry got more patients, and the Longbottoms had improved a good deal compared to their previous state. Sometimes, according to Augusta, they showed glimpses of being aware who they were. It was as if they were peeking out from behind a slightly opened door. Harry estimated that they might come out for longer after three months of treatment. Neville and his grandmother were already happy that there was visible progress made and did what Harry advised for the continuation of the treatment. For example, he had the two transferred back to Longbottom Hall, as a familiar environment could already help a lot in the two coming back.

After all, having them in St. Mungo's hadn't worked for the past twenty years, so why not try having them living at home, with a healer checking in on them every three days, if nothing bad was noticed by Augusta, Neville or the Longbottom house elves, who were all very eager to do their best to bring the two back.

Ginny had met with Newt and Rolf Scamander, and won Luna for her project too. Coincidentally, Luna hit it off with Rolf and the two could be seen discussing several kinds of magical creatures all the time, even if the discussions could get quite heated over many of the creatures Luna believed in. Well, if they worked out, Ginny wouldn't interfere.

Charlie, who loved his little sister's project, was won as an advisor on how to set up secure creature compounds. As he worked with dragons, he had a lot of experience in what to look out for, what to avoid and so on. His employer, the dragon preserve in Romania, agreed to send him to Great Britain on loan to assist with getting the project started, next to also offering the zoo two kinds of small dragon breeds, which were much easier to keep than the commonly known large ones. One was a Chinese breed, called the Snapper Blue, which was about the size of a full-grown kangaroo and couldn't spit fire. It killed its prey with poison.

The second type was an Australian breed, the Silver Mountain Dragon, which instead of fire spit ice. It was about the size of a German Sheppard and the ice could reach five metres from the dragon's mouth. It was certainly great to have those two types to show at the zoo, as they would certainly become crowd pullers. The Scamanders added their vast knowledge and experience to the things Ginny and Harry had learned during their travels and studies.

They all knew that the completion of all their projects would take years, but they would get there and bring what they had come to love doing to the magical people of their home county, even if there would be many stones and obstacles to be overcome for certain. They were a great team, they loved each other deeply and they were determined to make this into something that following generations could enjoy and expand on.


End file.
